


Ghost of My Past

by cellie6135



Category: Danny Phantom, Fairly OddParents, Nicktoons (Video Games), SpongeBob SquarePants (Cartoon), The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Drama, Ghosts, Human, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:07:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 65,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26068459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cellie6135/pseuds/cellie6135
Summary: AU! The world has suddenly turned into chaos with no explanation or reason. Monsters for another world prowl the Earth to enslave and kill all that lives in this world. One boy, Daniel James Fenton, struggles to survive and do what is right in this new world gone mad with other peoples' lives on the line. Can he make the best of his new life?
Kudos: 17





	1. The End of Days

It was a bright sunny summer day as an old yellow cab drove down the highway. The driver adjusted the rearview mirror in his car to look at the passenger who was sat in the backseat. It was a sixteen-year-old boy by the name of Daniel James Fenton or just Danny for short. Danny had black hair that was snowy at the back and icy blue eyes and had a large rucksack in the seat next to him.

He was wearing a white T-shirt with a thin red collar, red cuffs, and a red oval in the middle, light blue jeans, and red-and-white sneakers, and a red winter coat.

"Well, I reckon you're one of those runaways." The driver suddenly said.

"Does it really matter?" Danny asked as he continued to stare out the window, watching the world go by.

"Nah, not much." He shrugged. "Y'know, I've been driving this cab for five years and I've driven hundreds of people around the county; many of them young teens much like yourself." He mused. "Usually is 'bout now I get the 'My parents are so horrible' or 'School is like prison' etc."

"And what do you say?"

"I say, 'Yep, I know it is'." He replied. "I don't really see what's so bad about Amity Park to make you live, it's a nice place to live."

"You're from Amity Park then?"

"Yep, but moved up to Atlanta in the seventies; always wanted to be a teacher, but never had the concentration to pass college; a real shame."

"I hear you dude, I've always dreamt of being an astronaut when I was a kid." He sighed as another police car sped past them in the same direction they were heading with its sirens on full.

"I remember when I was a teen I used to go to the Nasty Burger right in downtown with my pals, is it still there?"

"Sure is."

"Good." The driver smiled as more police cars drove passed them.

"Any of that seem important to you?" Danny asked.

"Pretty much all of it, but that's the problem with cities like these, there are all kinds of problems; sit in this seat and pay too much attention and you'll just end up driving yourself crazy." He responded. "You'll have to learn to stop worrying about things you can't control." He added. Danny looked down at his sneakers as the driver's words circled around his mind as he played the sleeve of his coat.

The driver noticed his downtrodden look and immediately tried to change the subject.

"So, you live in Amity Park long?"

"My whole life."

"Did your parents grow up there too?" He smiled, but it dropped when he saw that Danny looked even more distressed as he turned his face away, looking out the window again as several more police cars pass by with their sirens on, along with a SWAT truck, all of them driving in the same direction. There as an awkward silence in the cab until they finally passed a large sign that said: 'Welcome to Dimsdale.'

"So, you ever get any creeps in here?" Danny suddenly asked.

"Aside from the occasional drunk and maybe an addict or two, not really; but if I ever did get any freakshows in this cab, I'm prepared." He smirked.

"How so?" Danny wondered and the driver opened his glove box to reveal a small handgun sitting comfortably inside.

"You wanna know how I see it?" The driver asked as he closed the glove box back up.

"Sure." He mumbled. The driver opened his mouth, about to speak, but then he noticed Danny was glaring at him, causing him to stay silent for a few moments, thinking of what to say.

"Regardless of what you or I might think, I can safely say that all parents, even if they don't always show it, love their children unconditionally and whatever you or your folks did to each other, running away isn't the answer." He explained. Danny opened his mouth to speak but decided not to, grunting dismissively as he returned to glaring out the window.

A helicopter, two SWAT trucks, and several police cars passed by them.

Not wanting it to go quiet again, the driver continued speaking.

"I was driving this girl once, s-she was the worst one, about your age; she wouldn't stop going on about how her folks didn't do anything for her; she's just wailing back there, says it wasn't fair, crying and snotting all over, right where you're sitting." He rambled on. "Then before long, she starts kicking the back of the seat, like a fucking baby; and I tell her she's gotta stop or I'll be forced to throw her out otherwise."

"So do you think her parents were that bad?"

"Bullshit!" He cried. "That bitch had designer clothes, big-ass jewelry and I swear those cupcakes weren't real and she's got the nerve to sit in my cab screaming bloody murder that her parents were the cruelest beings on the planet! I think she actually believed it herself." He sighed. "It goes to show, people shouldn't give their kids every little thing they want."

Danny could only shrug in some form of agreement.

"Oh, I got another good one for ya, this one's a little bit less depressing and a bit more hilarious if I do say so." The driver smiled. Danny turned to look at the man, only to freeze when he saw something green and... human? heading straight for them. He glanced at the driver, but the man had his eyes on him, not the road ahead of them. Danny wanted to scream out a warning, but it was too late.

The cab crashed into the green person on the road, veering out of control, right through the guard rail, and rolled off down the edge of the cliff next to the highway.

Danny could only watch in horror as his world spun around him like a merry-go-round ride thrown into overdrive. He saw as his bag and whatever the driver had in the front fly around them. All of a sudden the cab jolted to a halt, causing Danny to slam into the side of the car, hitting his head against the door. Half-conscious, Danny could see what he thought was odd shapes and funny shadows moving outside the car's cracked windows and he swore he could hear terrified screams and animalistic growls before passing out...

* * *

When Danny did finally manage to regain his consciousness he immediately realized that some time had passed as the to was morning now, instead of late in the afternoon.

"Ugh... Oww...shit." Danny moaned in pain as he touched the purple bruise on the side of his head. "Ahh! Fuck, my leg!" He cried when he tried to sit up. He looked at his leg and saw the large, bloody cut on his upper leg. He looked out the back window and saw the driver lying facedown on the ground against a boulder with a large blood trail behind him.

"Hey! Hey sir! Are you alright?!" He called out but only silence answered him.

After looking at the driver again Danny came to the horrifying realization that it didn't look good. The driver must-have been ejected from the car and that he wasn't moving. As Danny looked for a way out he noticed the handgun a few feet away from the driver. Danny frowned, wondering why the man had his gun out, but shrugged it off, thinking that it had been thrown out of the car.

He sighed in relief when he saw his rucksack next to the driver, seemingly undamaged.

Danny turned to the side window opposite of him and continually kicked it until it fell out of the car. He quickly climbed out of the broken window, landing painfully on the ground; thankfully he didn't cut himself on the shards of glass. He stood up and walked around the edge of the car, reaching the area where the driver was. He knelt down to pick up the gun, just to be safe, but growled when he saw that it was empty.

He didn't know if it was always empty or if the driver had shot at something while he was unconscious.

As he put the handgun down, he stopped when he saw puddles of glowing green goo not too far away from the gun, just out of view of the car. Very familiar looking glowing green goo. Danny approached the motionless driver as fast as he could and grabbed his rucksack. Danny quickly opened it up to make sure that everything was still there. He sighed in relief when he pulled out a small framed photograph.

The picture was undamaged, but the glass was badly cracked and the frame was broken.

Danny tossed the frame away and folded the picture up in his pocket as he equipped his rucksack. Just then the driver started groaning faintly.

"Uh, sir...?"

Suddenly the man shot up and lunged for the teen, barely missing him. His skin was ash gray and his eyes glowed a toxic green as green goo trickled out of the corner of his mouth. Danny yelped and fell backward as the driver growled like a rabid dog and tried to grab at him.

" **AHH! HOLY SHIT!** " He screamed in panic as the man crawled after him.

"What in the hell?! What the fuck are you?! What happened?! **WHAT** **HAPPENED**?!" Danny cried in fear and desperately as continued to scoot backward. Something smooth and leathery pressed against his hand. He looked down and saw a sharp, green katana on the ground in a green puddle halfway in its scabbard. Danny grabbed the blade and held it up to defend himself. "Please, don't make me do this..." He pleaded, but the driver shot forward.

Danny brought the blade down, slicing through the man's body from his shoulder, through his chest, and to his hip.

As the driver's body fell it suddenly dissolved into another pile of green goo, cover Danny in the stuff. The teen gagged as he threw up on the forest ground. As Danny got to his feet he saw two figures standing further in the distance.

"HELP! Go get someone!" Danny called out to them and the figures ran away.

Just then shapeless blobs that vaguely resemble humans emerged from deeper in the forest followed by groaning, slow-moving zombie-like people, similarly to the driver he had just killed. The blobs had either pale blue or green skin, and emit a distinct white aura around their bodies. Danny tried desperately to run but ended up slipping in the goo and falling, dropping the blade.

As soon as the blobs saw the katana they screamed and flew away as fast as they could get.

Unfortunately, the mindless humans that were following them continued with the slow chase. He grabbed the scabbard and placed the katana inside as he got up and limped away as he was chased. Thankfully it wasn't long before he came up to a tall white fence. He quickly climbed over a fence to escape the monsters, crawling backward as the infected humans pound on the fence until his back was against a sturdy wall of some kind.

Shots were suddenly fired somewhere in the distance, and the green-eyed people leave to chase the sound...

* * *

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	2. New Neighborhood

As soon as he was sure that the monsters were long gone, chasing some distant gunshots, Danny Fenton quickly got up and looked around, quickly noticing he was in the backyard of a house in a small neighborhood. The exterior of the house was painted white, with a red-colored roof, a chimney running up the right side of the house, and a satellite dish and garage on the left. In the back yard were a garden, more bushes, a swing, and a small treehouse.

"Hello? Anybody?" Danny called out but received no reply.

As he assessed the situation carefully he was sorta hoping there was nobody here, not really knowing how someone would react to a stranger bleeding in there backyard. He considered going back over the fence but quickly changed his mind, not knowing what was back there waiting for him. As he looked around he noticed two kids' lunch boxes sitting at the base of the tree. He winced as his stomach growled out, not knowing how long it had been since he had eaten.

Looked up to the treehouse but saw there was no ladder, not that he could get up there anyway with his leg hurting the way it was.

"Hello? I thought I saw two people in the forest, are you up there? I'm not one of them." He called up but shrugged when no one answered guessing it was empty. He looked to the back door and decided that he should just check inside the house, and hopefully find some food and bandages, before wandering out into the unfamiliar neighborhood. He walked over and knocked loudly on the backdoor, only for it to creak open slightly.

"Hello? Anybody home? I need a little help." He called inside but there was no answer.

Danny opened the door fully and carefully stepped inside, hoping that is there was someone here that they would shoot him. As he entered the house he closed the door behind him and grabbed his leg in pain. He set his rucksack down and slung the katana over his shoulder as he looked around the room. It was then that Danny noticed that the furniture in the living room was knocked over and there were bloodstains on the floor and wall of the kitchen.

"Fucking hell," Danny muttered in shock when he saw the puddle of blood in the kitchen.

As he walked further into the silent house and into the wrecked living room, he almost threw up again when he saw the body of a young child with bright blonde hair covered in blood and green goo. She couldn't have been older than ten years old. Knowing now that there was no one alive in the house, Danny limped back towards the kitchen to see what he could take. He opened all the cabinets by anything worthwhile was already gone.

He drank some water and notice a flyer from some kind of duck festival in Bikini Bottom along with an address for a hotel.

He remembered that Bikini Bottom was a beach town that survives due to tourism. Danny opened the drawer nearest to the fridge and saw a small walkie-talkie. He smiled fondly as he remembered when he and his friends used to play with similar radios. The answering machine suddenly beeped until he turned it on.

**-THREE NEW MESSAGES.-**

**-MESSAGE ONE.-**

**-LEFT AT 2:10 PM.-**

_**"Hey, Vicky; we're sorry still in Bikini. The Carmichaels had a little 'incident' with some crazy kids at the beach, so we had to get them to the ER and have it checked out. Anyway, they're still not feeling well enough to drive back tonight, so we're staying an extra day. Thanks so much for looking after Timmy and his friends for us, and I promise we'll be back soon and will pay you extra for your troubles!"**_ The woman chuckled as the message ended.

**-MESSAGE TWO.-**

**-LEFT AT 8:46 PM.-**

_**"Oh, my god, finally!"**_ A panicked man cried in relief. _**"I don't know if you tried to reach us; all the calls are getting dropped and I have no idea where the Turners have gone too. The authorities are not letting us leave and aren't telling us anything about Dimsdale. Please, please, just leave the city and take Jimmy and the others with you. I've got to get back to the hospital. Please just let me know that you're all safe."**_ The man pleaded as the message ended.

**-MESSAGE THREE.-**

**-LEFT AT 3:28 AM.-**

_**"Jimmy?"**_ A different woman whimpered in a tearful voice. _ **"Oh my baby, if you can hear this, call the police. That's 9-1-1. We love you...we love you...we love y-"**_

The machine gave one last beep after the last message and Danny felt like crying for the people on the machine. All of a sudden the walkie-talkie he had taken activated with a loud beep, startling Danny right out of his skin.

 _ **"Dad?"**_ A young boy's voice asked from the radio. Danny took out the walkie-talkie and walked over to the glass door to see if there was anyone out there, but it was still empty.

"Hello?" He said into the radio.

 _ **"You need to be quiet."**_ Another boy said sternly.

"Who is this?" Danny asked as he walked into the living room.

 _ **"I'm Timmy, the other guy is Jimmy, this is my house."**_ The first boy replied.

"Hi, Timmy and Jimmy, my names Danny." He smiled. "Are you okay?"

 _ **"We're okay, they tried to get us,"**_ Jimmy said.

 _ **"But we're hiding until our parents come home,"**_ Timmy added.

"Where are your parents?"

 _ **"They took a trip and left us with Vicky,"**_ Timmy said like he had a bad taste in his throat.

 _ **"I believe that they're in Bikini Bottom for the Duck Day Parade,"**_ Jimmy said with a hint of annoyance as well.

"How old are you two?"

 _ **"I'm ten and he's eleven."**_ Timmy quickly said.

"And you're all alone right now?" Danny asked in disbelief and fear.

 _ **"Yes, we don't know where anybody is, we have seen Vicky or Chloe in a while; how old are you?"**_ Jimmy asked.

"I'm sixteen," Danny replied as he entered the kitchen, avoiding the puddle of blood, and stood over by the window looking into the backyard. "Are you two safe?"

_**"Yes, it seems that those luminescent creatures have passed us several times without incident."** _

_**"We're outside in my treehouse cause the people can't get in, they can't climb up,"**_ Timmy said as the door to the treehouse opened a little bit to reveal two small figures huddled inside. _**"Can you see us? I can see you through the window."**_ He said as he waved at Danny. Danny smiled and waved back. Both younger boys suddenly screamed and jumped back into the treehouse and closed the door. Danny turned around and see the girl he had found on the ground standing behind him.

She looked to be in the exact same condition the driver had been in, worse even.

She growled and tried to attack him, but he pushed her to the kitchen ground. As he tried to run away, he slipped on the puddle of blood and hit his head on the counter. His vision was blurred, but he could vaguely see the little girl crawling toward him and he kicked her away. Danny got up and tried to run, but she grabbed his leg and tripped him up. He punched her away as she lunged at him again. Just then, Danny heard the backdoor burst open and one of the lunchboxes from outside was thrown and hit the girl in the head, knocking her back a bit.

Danny pushed her away and crawled further backward.

Once Danny reached the boys, he ripped the glowing green sword from the scabbard and ran the girl through the chest with it. He held her there until she stopped moving and dissolved into a green puddle. As the adrenaline faded, Danny leaned against his sword as he tried to catch his breath. Once he gathered his bearings, he turned to the boys with a nervous smile.

"Hi there." He said breathlessly as he finally got a good look at the two kids.

Jimmy had a disproportionately large forehead, blue eyes, and brown hair in a swirly cowlick. Jimmy was wearing a red T-shirt that sported a symbol of a yellow atom. Timmy was wearing a pink hat that matched his shirt and had dark blue pants and shoes. His hair was colored brown and was a similar style to his own. He had astral blue colored eyes and huge buck teeth.

"Did you kill it?" Timmy asked as the took a step backward to avoid the goo oozing across the floor.

"I think something else did," Danny replied uncertainly.

"We heard her and Vicky screaming two nights ago; perhaps one of the creatures got them?"

"Two nights ago?" He asked in shock as he knelt to be at their eye-level. "You've been all by yourself through this?"

"Yeah, I never thought I'd say this but I want my parents to come home now." Timmy whimpered.

"I think that might be a little while," Danny said, thinking back to the messages. They both looked down sadly and Danny moved closer. "Look, I don't know what happened, but I'll look after you until this is all over." He gave them a reassuring smile and they nodded.

"What should we do now, Danny?" Jimmy asked.

"We need to find help before it gets dark."

"Yeah, it's not safe at night." Timmy nodded.

"Ok, we should look around to see if there's anything we can take with us before we leave, do you know if there's anyone upstairs?" He asked, but they both shook their heads. "Alright, you boys get back into the treehouse where it's safe and I'll see what I can find upstairs."

"Wait! Don't leave us!" Timmy cried.

"What Turner means is how do we know you're not gonna take what you can and leave us here?" Jimmy asked with a small glare. Danny thought about it for a moment before handing the boys his rucksack.

"Everything I own is in this bag, you hold onto it until I get back, I take this radio as well and check-in after every room I check, ok?" He offered with a smile. The boys thought about it for a moment before taking the rucksack and heading towards the treehouse. Danny sighed in relief as he stood back up and pocketed the radio again.

He grabbed his sword and headed up the stairs...


	3. School's In Session

It was almost sunset when Danny finally emerged from inside the dark house. Thankfully there was nothing else hiding in the house. He came back with two rucksacks he had found in a closet and filled them with supplies for the boys. Both bags were filled with bottled water, blankets, and pillows, knives from the kitchen, and warm, long-sleeved clothing. Unfortunately, there wasn't any food in the house. On the bright side, however, he found other useful items inside, such as batteries, flashlights, matches, permanent markers, a can opener, lighters, duct tape, glow sticks, and boots.

As he stepped into the backyard he smiled as he saw the boys climbing down with his rucksack.

As he equipped both his sword and his rucksack, he handed the boys theirs.

"Are they too heavy?" He asked them.

"We'll be fine, let's just get somewhere safe," Jimmy replied. Danny nodded and took the lead back through the house towards the front door. As they left the house Danny noticed two men in the street trying to push a car.

"I know those men." Timmy suddenly whispered. "That's Mr. Dinkleberg and my friend Chester's dad, Bucky McBadbat."

"Both of you stay close to me." He said to the boys as he slowly approached the two men, not knowing if they were monsters or not.

"Man, I ain't never getting back to my boy at this rate," Bucky growled as Mr. Dinkleberg thought about what to do next. Danny was about to step out into the street but turned when he and noticed the boys weren't following him. He knelt in front of them and saw the conflicted look in their eyes.

"What's the matter?"

"Should we stay?" Jimmy asked.

"What?"

"I don't want to sleep in the treehouse tonight, but I don't know if we should leave," Timmy explained. "What if our parents come home?"

"I won't leave you here alone," Danny promised. "I get that you want to stay but it's too dangerous; when everything's over we can come back and wait for them, is that ok?"

"I agree, let's go somewhere safe that's close," Jimmy said and Timmy just nodded.

"Let's go," Danny said as he got up and Timmy closed the door. They approach the two men cautiously.

"Hey!" Danny called and the men quickly turn around, startled.

 **"HOLY SHIT!"** Bucky cried.

 **"DON'T EAT US!"** Mr. Dinkleberg pleaded.

"Relax guys, we're not gonna hurt you," Danny reassured as he and the boys held up their hands

"Thought for a second you and the kids were BOTH gonna get us," Bucky said.

"We need help." Danny pleaded.

"Are you trying to get outta here? Because you should be." Mr. Dinkleberg said.

"Those things are all over the damn place. I haven't seen anything as gnarly since my last game." Bucky added.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked as he glanced at the car they were pushing.

"Trying to get to the school, everyone who couldn't get out of town is hiding out there, this neighborhood's a disaster." Mr. Dinkleberg replied only to finally see Timmy hiding with Jimmy behind the teen.

"T-Timmy? You're alive?" He asked in shock. "But Vicky said you, Chloe, and your friend were dead."

"Chloe... Chloe's dead." Timmy muttered, looking to the ground.

"We thought Vicky was dead too," Jimmy added, confused.

"Nah, her, her sister, and her folks left town days ago, God knows where though." Bucky shrugged.

"Nevermind that now, we shouldn't be out in the open like this." Mr. Dinkleberg suddenly said as he looked around fearfully. "Timmy, how about you help us clear the way and we'll take you and your friend and his big brother out of here, and down to school; it should be safer there."

"I'm not his brother." Danny quickly said. "I'm just some guy."

"Some guy? They've been alone all this time?" Mr. Dinkleberg asked in shock, to which all three could only nod.

"Let's get going, I gotta get back ta my boy," Bucky called as he tried to push the car again. Danny nodded in agreement and turned to the boys.

"What do you want to do?" He asked. Jimmy smiled but Timmy kept looking at his house, then back at Danny, not sure what to do. Just then, everyone froze when they heard growling in the distance and saw the infected human slowly coming towards them.

"Them monsters comin'! **WE GOTTA GO!** " Bucky screamed as he, Mr. Dinkleberg, Danny and the boys pushed the car away

Once the car's out of the way, Mr. Dinkleberg got into the driver's seat of the pickup truck. Danny grabbed the boys and practically threw them into the truck's back seat as he jumped in after them. Bucky quickly jumped in the truck bed as the truck sped down the road as fast as it could. Timmy looked out the back window towards his home, wondering if that was the last time he'd ever see it...

* * *

It was well into the night by the time they pulled up outside the elementary school. The school was a white building with a purplish tint, most of the building was just one story but there was a tower in the middle at the front of the school. The symmetrical and simplistic architecture suggested it was built in the 1950s. There was also a sizable playground and recess area outside which included basketball and tetherball courts. As everyone got out of the truck, Bucky got in the driver's seat.

"Hey, Dinkleberg, I'm' a run on home." He said. "My Chester's gonna be in a snit."

"No worries, take care Mr. McBadbat." Mr. Dinkleberg smiled.

"I'll call to check in tomorrow morning; it was nice to meet ya kid." He smiled as he shook Danny's hand and drove off. The front doors suddenly opened and a heavyset, ginger-haired woman, Principal Geraldine Waxelplax, emerged, followed by Mrs. Dinkleberg.

"Thank god you're okay." Mrs. Dinkleberg cried as she embraced her husband.

"I was worried it'd be bad here, too." He replied as he hugged his wife. "I wouldn't have made it back without Bucky."

"Well, I'm glad you took him with you."

"Thankfully it's been quiet as usual the past couple days." Geraldine smiled until she saw Danny and the boys and put her hands on her hips. "You've brought a couple of guests." She frowned.

"We just need a little help." Danny quickly said. "We won't stay long."

"Don't be silly, you're welcome to stay here, but I don't know for how long as we're running low on supplies." She explained as she gave them the once over. "So it's just you, Timmy and your brother then?"

"Oh, not his brother, he's...well... just some guy who found them both alone." Mr. Dinkleberg explained. "He's just a good samaritan." He added with a small chuckle as he and his wife went into the school. Geraldine frowned and knelt down in front of Jimmy and Timmy.

"Boys, do you trust this young man?" She asked.

"Yes." They both replied and Danny gave a small smile.

"Okay, then." She said as she stood back up and turned to Danny. "It looks like you hurt your leg pretty bad dear."

"Yeah, it's not doing so good." Danny nodded.

"Timmy, why don't take your friend to rest in your classroom I'll go see if Dr. Rip Studwell can take a look at his leg." She smiled and headed into the school.

Timmy took Danny's hand and led him inside, with Jimmy following close behind. Inside the school looked like a typical American public school with lockers, a cafeteria, and classrooms with school desks. Once they were inside the classroom, Danny sat at a desk and sat nearby. Geraldine returned shortly with a cup of warm cocoa and a short man with thick black hair, who was holding a roll of bandages. He instantly knelt down and inspected Danny's leg.

"Yeah, this is swollen pretty bad." The doctor said as he inspected the wound.

"Could be worse." Danny shrugged, trying not to wince in pain.

"That's what it sounds like." The doctor chuckled. "Seems like things got awful bad in the cities."

"What'd you say your name was again?" Geraldine asked the teen as she handed Timmy and Jimmy their cocoa.

"It's Danny Fenton."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Fenton, I'm Geraldine Waxelplax, the principle of this school." She smiled as the doctor started to bandage his wound, causing him to wince in pain.

"How'd this happen?" Dr. Rip Studwell asked.

"Car accident."

"Is that so? Where were you headed before the car accident?" She asked.

"I was getting out of Amity Park." He replied. "We hit something, but I have no idea if it was one of those things you've been hearing about."

"Who were you with?"

"I was in a cab."

"We've got another group of three sleeping in the classroom next to yours and I've got the teachers here checking all the doors regularly so nothing should get in here while you sleep, you boys are welcome to rest here when we're done with your leg." She smiled and turned to the kids. "I didn't catch your name, honey."

"It's Jimmy Neutron."

"Can't imagine what you've all been through." She said with a sympathetic look in her eyes as the doctor finished with Danny's leg.

"I'm looking after them until we find their parents." Danny quickly said. She gave him a look before she and the doctor made to leave, but before going, she gave them one last smile.

"Get some sleep boys, you need it." She said before closing the classroom door. Once they were alone Danny reached into the bags and pulled out the blankets and pillows and crafted three makeshift beds for them. Once he was finished, he took the empty mugs as the boys curled up in their beds.

"Leaping Leptons! The floor's freezing!" Jimmy cried as Danny chuckled until he noticed the look on Timmy's face.

"What's wrong Tim?" He asked.

"I miss my mom and dad."

"Me too," Jimmy mumbled, but Danny heard it.

"I bet," Danny said comfortingly.

"How far is Bikini Bottom?" Timmy asked.

"Pretty far."

"Do you think they might have gone back to my home in Retroville? It's close then Dimsdale." Jimmy suggested.

"It's possible; why don't we get some sleep and go over options tomorrow?"

"Ok." Jimmy sighed.

"Sure," Timmy muttered as he turned over.

Quickly, a deathly still silence descended upon the dark classroom as Danny soon fell into an uneasy sleep...


	4. School Shoot Out

As they slept, Danny tossed and turned restlessly as he dreamed. He could hear himself and his friends and family laughing. He heard what sounded like a machine starting up and he heard a man and woman screaming. He screamed as he bolted awake. He was breathing heavily for a few moments before realizing it was morning and Bucky was standing by the door with Timmy and Jimmy beside him.

"Hey buddy, you alright?" He asked as Danny got up.

"Yeah, just had a bad dream, are you two ok?" The teen asked.

"We're fine, better than sleeping in a treehouse." Timmy frowned.

"Well, you slept on a classroom floor, little man; lucky the monsters didn't get ya." Bucky laughed as they looked around fearfully. "But I bet Danny scared 'em all away, huh?" He added. Just then a boy around Timmy and Jimmy's age ran into the room with a big grin on his face. This was Bucky's son and Timmy's friend Chester McBadbat.

Chester had short blond hair, turquoise eyes and wore an olive green coat over a black shirt, jeans and he also had braces.

"Dad! We're gonna enforce the backdoors like they do in the zombie movies!" He exclaimed before running off.

"We better get going or we won't hear the end of it." Bucky smiled and they followed him and his son down the hall. "That's my boy, Chester; nothing bothers him, like water off a duck's back, y' know."

"That's a valuable trait lately." Danny smiled.

"No kidding but frankly, I think it's because he's dumb as a bag of hammers." Bucky laughed. "But he makes up for it with enthusiasm." He added as they walked up to the Dinklebergs, Chester an old woman and a tall man who looked very similar to the woman.

"The word is you were on your way to Amity Park," Bucky said.

"My family's from there, I just want to make sure they're ok." He replied.

"Well, Amity Park's on the way and, personally, I'd appreciate the company of a guy who can knock a couple of heads together if he has to, even if he's just a kid himself."

"Maybe, we'll see how things shake out with this place." He replied.

"Ha, good luck with that kiddo." Bucky laughed before turning to the tall pale man and old woman. "That's Denzel Crocker, he's a teacher here, and his mother Dolores-Day Crocker."

"Hey there, I'm Danny and this is Jimmy and Timmy."

"I know who Turner is," Crocker growled and Danny straightened up, glaring at the man's tone. "He's my worst student."

"Denzel, watch your tone." His mother scolded. "They're just children, we're all here because we're trying to survive this nightmare."

"Maybe Mother, but unlike these brats I'm prepared." He smirked and pulled up his shirt to reveal a small handgun sticking out of his pants pocket. Before they could say anything Geraldine Waxelplax approached the group.

"Well, we should get to work; we've all seen what those things can do out there so the faster we get the doors secured, the better." She explained.

"I wanna help!" Timmy and Chester grinned

"Yeah? Well, I need a good foreman." Bucky smiled.

"You can sit on the side and yell at us whenever we take a water break." Mr. Dinkleberg laughed as the four of them headed for the doors.

"I can keep an eye on your little brother while we're checking our supplies." Dolores smiled. Danny looked to Jimmy to see if he was fine with that. The boy nodded and Danny decided to see if the others needed any help.

"Hey, there Bucky." Danny smiled. "Need any help?"

"Naw, I think I got it; do YOU need any help?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, in taking care of those two boys, you know what you're doing?"

"I think I've got it handled okay," Danny replied. "As long as I keep them safe, I think I'm doing alright."

"With those things out there, maybe that's not enough," Bucky said without thinking but quickly cleared his throat. "But you gotta ask yourself if you're the type of guy who can do better than that if their parents don't show up soon."

"I'll keep that in mind." Danny nodded before heading off to see if Jimmy and the girls needed help. He looked around and saw Crocker skulling down the hall to who knows where, but he didn't really care. He found them in the cafeteria looking through boxes of canned food and other supplies. "Whoa, you three actually look relaxed."

"Jimmy was just telling me about school." Mrs. Dinkleburg smiled

"Oh, uh, how is that?" He asked the boy.

"It's easy." He shrugged. "Especially when I have an impossible I.Q. of 210."

"Whoa." Danny breathed, very impressed. "With that brain, you'd pass college by the time your thirteen."

"Hopefully." Jimmy smiled as he picked up a box to take it into the back. Once he was gone Danny turned to Mrs. Dinkleberg and saw the distraught and teary look in her tired eyes.

"Are you ok?" He asked as he took a seat next to her.

"Just for a moment then it was almost like we didn't see flying monsters or people eating each other for the past three days." She chuckled bitterly.

"So, uh, what do you do when monsters aren't walking around?" He asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"My husband is an entrepreneur and I'm unemployed." She explained. "What is it that you do, other than school?"

"I used to dream of being an astronaut." He smiled.

"We need to HOPE that we can go back to our jobs and dreams soon, Danny, it can't stay like this." She smiled. Danny simply nodded before going back to check on how the door barricade was coming along. Bucky must have been looking for more materials and Timmy was looking in the lockers to see if there was anything useful inside while Chester was watching his dad.

"How are you doing, boys?" He asked them.

"Not good, there's nothing in here." Timmy glared as he slammed another locker shut and walked off down another hall.

"What about you Chester?"

"I'm the foreman! Lift with your back, Dad!" The blonde boy shouted.

"Hey, Danny." Bucky smiled before turning to his son. "Chester, why don't ya go help Timmy out, Danny can keep me on track." He laughed. Chester nodded and ran off to find the bucktooth boy.

"Need a hand?" The teen asked.

"That'd be great, if you could hold up those two-bys to length, that'd be a big help." He replied and Danny picked up the boards; after a few minutes, Bucky sighed in exhaustion. "My boy doesn't know how bad it is."

"No, he doesn't," Danny said, having noticed it right away.

"I saw a guy new our trailer kill a kid, a boy, just shot him right in the face." Bucky whimpered. "For a moment I thought it was my Chester until he came up behind me asking what that bang was."

"Was the boy one of the infected?"

"I don't even know, he was either attacking the guy or asking for help." He said in a shaky voice. "He didn't even hesitate, he just turned, put the barrel of the gun right between this kid's eyes and pulled the trigger; you don't see things like that."

"They don't fall as you think."

"Did you have to do it?"

"What?"

"Kill." Bucky glared. "Have you had to off one yet?"

"Sometimes it's kill or be killed; I had to kill two." He replied. "One was my cab driver, the other was a little girl who was staying with Timmy and Jimmy."

"I could kill one, maybe, if it was far away," Bucky said, not meeting the teen's eyes. "I'm just glad we're getting this place secure." He added. "Mr. Crocker just wants to save himself and thinks inviting people in is a bigger threat than whatever's out there."

"I suppose he's not wrong."

"How about you? How's your family?"

"My sister and parents are in Amity Park, I hope."

"Oh, man, I hope so too, maybe it's not too bad there."

"Hey Bucky, thanks again for the ride yesterday." Danny smiled. "I mean it, you and Mr. Dinkleberg might have saved our lives."

"No problem, Danny, couldn't leave you guys behind." He chuckled. "Anyway, when you see Geraldine around, she might want some help in the office, I think she's trying to call for help." He explained and turned but to the doors. Danny nodded and headed off to the principle's office; as he looked for the office he saw Crocker's mother heading to where they were working on the doors with bottles of water.

"Hey Dolores, do you know where the principle's office is?" He asked.

"Yes dear, just down that hall and two more lefts." She smiled before walking off...

* * *

When Danny finally managed to find the way the principle's office he saw Crocker standing therewith Geraldine. It seemed he had just walked into something very heated and tense. After a few moments of awkward silence, Crocker walked out, giving Danny a glare. He turned to the woman but she refused to meet his eyes as she messed with an old radio, trying to get a signal.

"You should know that if you weren't leaving with the Dinklebergs today, I wouldn't stand for your lack of honesty last night." She finally said.

"I'm not sure I follow." He frowned.

"I have been a teacher for a long while now, in that time you learn when children and teachers are lying or trying to hide something." She explained. "How'd you get out of Amity Park?"

"I got a ride and then I was in a wreck, I walked until I found the boys and then Bucky and Mr. Dinkleberg brought us here."

"Hmm, well, you're no worse for wear." She frowned. "Where's your family now? Parents? Girlfriend?"

"My parents are in Amity Park, with my sister."

"Well, I hope they're alright."

"But now you've got these little boys to take care of, you just stumbled upon them?"

"I was looking for help when I came upon Timmy's house, then I was being attacked by one of those things and they came to my rescue." He explained before glaring. "What are you even getting at?" He asked. She said nothing for a few moments as she kept trying to get the radio to work before standing up and walking over to the teen.

"Can I give you a piece of advice?" She asked and he nodded. "I do not know who you are or what you did, but you had better become a better liar, and fast." She glared. "Let's say things don't get better back in the cities, or they get worse before they do, you're gonna have to depend on the honesty of strangers if you're gonna make it and if those same people question yours, you're gonna be in trouble; so whoever you are, and whatever you did, keep it to yourself."

Danny wanted to say something but kept his mouth shut.

"But at least you have the common sense to listen to someone's advice." She smiled.

All of a sudden there was a loud crack and a bloodcurdling scream echoing down the halls.

"What the hell?!" Danny cried.

" **GO!** I'll get Mr. Crocker and his gun!" Geraldine ordered and she ran off down the opposite hall. Danny quickly ran into the classroom they had slept in and grabbed his sword before going to help. As Danny ran to see what was happening, he saw the Dinklebergs and Bucky following close behind. As they got closer to the screaming Danny's stomach dropped when he heard familiar growls and hissing. When they reached the doors, they saw that Chester and Dolores were trapped under the boards and some lockers.

Dolores was trying to fight off three infected trying to get through the doors as Timmy and Jimmy stood back in terror.

Suddenly two ghosts flew in through the doors and circled overhead before lunging at Timmy and Jimmy. Reacting almost on instinct, Danny pulled out his sword and sliced through both ghosts before turning to see that the Dinklebergs had grabbed the two boys and ran off to safety and Bucky tried to save Chester. Danny ran up to Chester and tried to pull him out from under the boards and lockers, but to no avail. Just as an infected tried to bite them, Danny drove to blade into its head and it turned to goo just as Bucky managed to free his son.

"I got you!" He said as he scooped Chester into his arms and hugged him tightly, his voice shaking.

" **HELP ME! PLEASE!** " Dolores suddenly screamed in terror. Bucky turned to the old woman but then ran away to take Chester to safety. Danny made to run to help Dolores, but it was too late. The board she was using to defend herself was knocked out of her hand and the infected bit into her shoulder as she screamed just as Crocker ran up with his gun and shot the monster in the head. They both stood there for a moment as the boys, the Dinkleberg and Bucky returned.

Quickly Crocker rushed to his mother's side and cradled her as blood gushed from her wound and onto the floor, mixing in with the goo around them.

As her eyes darted around in a blind panic, her son sobbed into her uninjured should as she gasped her last breath. Crocker hugged her dead body for a few moments as Danny stood in front of Timmy and Jimmy to block their view of Dolores. Just then Hershel stood up with his back to them all, incredible anger and sadness radiating off him.

"Get out." He hissed before turning to them. " **GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!** "

"I'm sorry," Bucky said, looking anywhere but the body or Crocker.

" **SORRY?!** Your family is alive! You don't get to be sorry! And **YOU!** " He screamed before turning to Danny. "You didn't even try to help!"

"I was worried about the boy," Danny replied sympathetically

"But you weren't worried about a poor **OLD WOMAN?!** " He screamed before pulling it out his gun and aiming it at them. " **GET OUT!** "

"What is going on here?!" Geraldine asked as she rounded the corner next to them.

Suddenly Crocker turned around and shot her in the stomach. Everything froze for a second before Geraldine crumbled to the floor, clutching her bleeding stomach, releasing a breathless gasp. That was all the signal they needed before Danny grabbed Timmy and Jimmy's wrists and dragged them to the classroom to grab their rucksacks. Quicker than lightning, they grabbed their bags and ran out the front doors just as Bucky was about to drive off.

In the pickup truck were the Dinkleberg's and Chester.

Danny quickly threw the boys into the back of the truck and jumped in after them as they peeled out of there to who knows where...


	5. Survivors

The group had been driving for a whole day in Bucky's truck until they reached Amity Park. Danny frowned at the state of his home town. The stores looked ransacked, cars parked in the middle of the road, and the streets were completely deserted. They drove into the middle of town when the truck suddenly sputtered to a slow stop.

"Well, this is as far as we're going." Bucky glared.

"Then it's far enough," Danny said and everyone got out of the truck and walked down the empty street. As they looked around, Danny briefly stopped in front of a large clinic on the corner, where he thought he could see shadows inside. Chester gasped suddenly and pointed to what appeared to be a person near a turned over car in the distance and Bucky waved his arms to try to get their attention.

"Hey there! You friendly?" He called out. "Truck's run out of gas!"

The person looked up, revealing that it was actually an infected human eating a dead survivor. Due to all the noise, many infected started approaching the group, surrounding them.

"We're **TRAPPED!** " Timmy cried.

Suddenly a zombie knocked Danny over and tried to attack him. As the teen desperately tried to avoid being bitten someone shot the infected, who collapsed on Danny as it dissolved. Danny, now covered in goo, returned to the group and was hugged by Jimmy and Timmy. They looked over to the clinic and saw a man and a woman around Danny's age.

" **RUN!** " The woman who saved him shouted.

As she continued to shoot the infected, everyone ran into the building behind the man. He closed and padlocked the metal gate in front of the building and joined the others inside as zombies pound on the gate. Inside the clinic, there were four additional survivors.

"We can't take risks like this!" A teenage girl snarled as she paced around.

"And we can't just let people die out there, either." The girl who saved them snapped.

"When I **SAY** 'that door stays shut no matter what' I fucking **MEAN** it." The first girl shouted. "We don't know who these people are; they could be dangerous!"

"Where the hell is your humanity?! They would've died out there!"

"Then we let 'em!"

"We have kids with us." Danny quickly said, causing the survivors to look at them, and when the pacing girl saw Timmy and Jimmy she froze.

"V-Vicky?" Timmy whispered in shock.

"How the fuck are you twerps alive!?" She screamed as she backed away from them. "I thought you were dead!"

"We thought you were dead!" Jimmy argued.

"You said that the monsters got them!" Another voice said and everyone turned to a boy around Chester and Timmy's age.

"AJ?!" Both boys exclaimed.

"Who are all these people?" Jimmy asked confusion.

"Alright, let's all just calm down." A young man said. "I'm Bob, but my friends call me SpongeBob and you've already know Vicky and AJ; the others are Kwan Sie, Valerie Gray, and that's Vicky mom and sister Nicky and Tootie." He explained.

Danny looked around and got a good look at every one. Vicky had red hair with a ponytail, pink eyes, faded pink lipstick, and she was wearing a short green midriff T-shirt that showed her stomach, and black pants and shoes. Tootie had black hair in two pigtails and dark eyes. She wore purple framed glasses had a cracked lensed and braces on her teeth. She was around Timmy's height and age and wore a black vest over a white short-sleeved shirt, and a gray plaid skirt over black tights along with black boots.

Nicky wore thick dark round frame glasses and had dark hair, resembling Tootie, but with pink eyes like Vicky.

Valerie Gray was an African-American girl, with long, curly hair and dark green eyes. She was a little curvy and wore a yellow sleeveless shirt, orange skirt with white tennis shoes, and an orange headband. Kwan Sie was of Asian descent with short black hair and seafoam green eyes. He was very muscular and fit. He wore the standard uniform of the jocks: a red-and-white letterman jacket, with a black t-shirt underneath and light blue jeans and white shoes.

SpongeBob was a young man with light yellow hair, with large light blue eyes, a long, slightly curved nose, a large mouth with two prominent front buck teeth, and dimples with three freckles on each cheek.

He wore a white shirt, black leather shoes with white shoelaces, white socks with blue and red stripes, and brown rectangular pants with a black belt. AJ was a bald boy who wore a light blue sweater vest over a white shirt. He also had gray pants with black shoes and his eyes were colored blue and he was holding a small PDA scanner kind of gadget that he was pointing at all the newcomers. Danny immediately recognized Kwan and Valerie from his class before he left town, but thankfully it seemed that they didn't recognize him.

"My name's Danny, this is Timmy, Jimmy, Chester, Bucky, and Mr. and Mrs. Dinkleberg."

Suddenly the scanner in AJ's hand started going crazy when he pointed it at Danny. As soon as that happened the people from Vicky's group started to become hysterical as they backed up and Valerie pulled out a gun and pointed it at him.

"Son of a bitch, he's infected!" Vicky screamed.

"I'm not infected!" Danny exclaimed

"The hell your not!" Kwan shouted. "Why else would the kid's ecto scanning thingy go off?"

"I'm covered in goo from killing those things, I'll clean up and you'll see there's no bite!" Danny said and quickly took his shirt off and Valerie tried to wipe away the muck off him, searching for a bite or any sign of infection.

"Don't you fucking people get it?" Vicky hissed. "We've already **SEEN** this happen before, we let someone with a bite stay and **WE** all end up dead!"

"Shut up." Bucky glared.

"We gotta throw him out! Or smash his head in! Or better yet destroy his heart!" She snarled and grabbed a large shard of broken glass off the ground.

"Somebody stop her!" Mrs. Dinkleberg cried as she held onto her husband.

"Vicky, please, let's just wait to see if Miss Gray-"

"I'll handle this, Mom!" She shouted.

"You need to calm down," SpongeBob said with a shaking voice.

"Not while my life's in danger!" She screamed.

"Everyone **CHILL THE FUCK OUT!** " Valerie shouted.

"Nobody is doing anything!" Kwan shouted.

"Shut up, Kwan! And **YOU** shut the fuck up!" Vicky said to Val before turning back to the group. "They will find us and they will get in here, and none of this will fucking matter, but right now we're about to be **TRAPPED** in here with one of those things!"

"What are you talking about?" Mr. Dinkleburg asked.

"He's bitten! That's how you become infected." Nicky explained.

"Vicky, we get it, it's a big deal," AJ said.

"Do you really? You're not fucking acting like it!" She snapped.

"Are you just gonna let your daughter do this?!" Bucky glared at Nicky.

"Hey, I'm not the bad guy here, I'm just looking out for my family!" Vicky quickly defended.

"No, you're just the one arguing for killing a kid!" Mr. Dinkleburg exclaimed.

"He ain't a kid! She'll find the bite and when she does the first thing he'll do is sink his teeth into Val's face; then once she's dead, he'll probably pounce on **YOUR** little boy!" She said to Bucky.

" **NO!** Don't hurt him!" Timmy shouted as he and Jimmy ran in between her and Danny.

" **THAT'S** **ENOUGH!** " Danny finally shouted before taking a deep breath. "I've got two kids I'm trying to protect in here too, do you seriously think I would endanger them like that?" He asked. Before anyone could answer him, however, AJ's device started beeping again. Seconds later, Tootie and her mother started screaming as a ghost emerged through the wall, trying to attack them. Danny instantly shot forward with his sword drawn and stabbed into the green figure before it could get to the small family.

"You okay?" Valeria asked.

"Just great, thanks." He replied as he stood up, but everyone went quiet when they heard the infected growling and pounded on the door.

"Everybody down! Stay quiet!" Kwan whispered. Bucky, Chester, AJ, and the Dinklebergs huddle together, Timmy and Jimmy hid behind Danny, and everyone else knelt down behind the shelves.

"They're gonna get in!" Nicky whimpered as she held Tootie tighter.

"Shut up." Vicky hissed as noises and gunfire were heard outside.

"Is that the military?" Danny asked but no one replied. Thankfully, whatever it was, had driven the infected off towards the sounds. Once they were sure the coast was clear, Vicky got up and marched across the room towards Danny and the boys as everyone left their hiding positions.

"We almost died because of this bastard and his crying brats!" She exclaimed.

Danny was about to bite back when Nicky suddenly groaned in pain and grabbed her chest, falling to the floor.

" **MOM!** " Tootie cried as she rushed to her mother's side.

"What's wrong with her?!" Danny asked.

"It's her heart!" SpongeBob gasped.

"My pills..." Nicky moaned in agony.

"Um... Nitroglycerin pills?" Jimmy asked.

"Yes, we're out." Vicky huffed.

"We've been trying to get into the pharmacy since we got here! Please, try to get in there where the pills are!" Tootie pleaded, close to tears.

"We'll get in there somehow." The black and white-haired teen promised and the little girl gave him a grateful, teary smile.

"Everyone else should get comfy and look for anything useful, we could be in here a while." Bucky sighed.

"I'm starting to think this drugstore isn't a permanent solution." Mr. Dinkleberg pointed out.

"You're right, this ain't exactly Fort Knox," Kwan added.

"We need as much gas as possible so we can all get out of downtown Amity Park; fast," Danny said. "There was a mini-bus parked outside the clinic that would be big enough for all of us."

"Then I'll head out and get gas," Kwan suggested. "There's a car sale lot not too far from here, I'll work my way towards it and then loop back around, siphoning what I can."

"You're insane." Vicky scoffed

"Well, it's gotta get done, plus, I'm quick and I know Amity Park." He explained.

"If you're gonna do that, here's a walkie-talkie if you get in a tight spot," Danny said and handed the small radio to Kwan. "Hopefully you won't need it; Timmy's got the other one, check in with him and get back here as soon as you can." He explained before turning to the Dinklebergs and pointed to Tootie and her mother. "Keep a good eye on them while we work on getting the medicine."

"Of course." The couple nodded and knelt beside the woman.

"And you, you keep an eye on that front door." He said to SpongeBob. "You're our lookout."

"You got it." He smiled and ran to the door.

"Okay, Valerie, you'll shift in with SpongeBob when he needs it, for now, get some rest, you're a good shot and I'd like to keep it that way."

"You got it, boss." She smirked and started working on an old radio, waiting for SpongeBob to come back. Danny smiled before frowning as he tried to think of a way to get into the pharmacy before it was too late...


	6. Clinic Confrontation

Danny frowned as he assessed the situation and started looking for a way to get into the pharmacy. Unfortunately, all he found was an old newspaper, some energy bars, and two batteries. He handed what little food he found to the kids and noticed Jimmy and AJ were talking about the device the bald boy was holding. As Danny approached, the device started beeping again, causing AJ to jump back.

"What is that?" Danny asked.

"It's a special detector that can detect a ghosts' ectoplasmic signature and it can detect traces of ectoplasm in humans, telling us if they're infected or not," Jimmy explained. "AJ made it himself."

"Really?" Danny gasped and he looked to the boy, who was still eyeing him fearfully.

"What I don't understand is why it keeps going off around you." Jimmy mused out loud. "It keeps saying up as you being a ghost, not an infected." Danny frowned in thought when his eyes widened with an idea. He pulled out his sword and moved it in front of the scanner, causing it to beep again.

"Where did you get that?" Bucky asked.

"When the car I was in crashed and I woke up I was attacked by the driver and this sword was lying on the ground nearby, I grabbed it and it has saved mine and other people's life several times now." He smiled.

"Those things use weapons like that." Vicky spat.

"Well, we're using it now." Danny glared as he stood up and started looking around again. He noticed Valerie was still messing with the old radio. "So, how'd you end up here alone?" He asked.

"Those creeps, or ghouls or whatever the hell they are, they were pulling our car apart and that guy, SpongeBob, just came to the rescue." She explained as her expression fell and tears welled up in her eyes. "My dad was eaten about five feet away from me, and I would've joined him in death if it wasn't for that dork on watch over there."

"I'm sorry," Danny said before looking to the doors where SpongeBob was standing. "That guy saved you?"

"Yeah, can you believe it?"

"You can never tell who the heroic ones are gonna be, I suppose." She laughed bitterly as she put the radio down.

"Let me have a look at that thing," Danny said as he picked it up. He flipped the radio around, opened the battery door, and saw that there were no batteries in it, so he took out the batteries he had found and smiled when they fit in. As he closed the battery door he pulled up the antenna, turned up the volume, and pressed the 'on' button. The radio buzzed to life and Danny placed it back on the table.

"You fixed it!" Valerie gasped as a smile spread across her face.

 _ **"As the invasion of the unknown creatures and the virus they've brought her continues to spread global unchallenged, the estimated death toll continues to skyrocket."**_ A man exclaimed. _**"Action News urges you to stay indoors, and avoid any contact with individuals you suspect may have been infected."**_

"The station is okay!" SpongeBob cried, a hopeful tone in his voice.

 _ **"In the event of a full... uh, my producer is now telling me that we have to get off the air; Action News wishes you and your loved ones... God bless you all."**_ The man said before the broadcast cut out with a burst of static.

"Oh, God," Val whispered in shock. SpongeBob looked ready to throw up as he paled and backed away. Danny decided that he had heard enough and went to check on everyone else. He walked over to check on Nicky and the Dinklebergs and noticed the couple were whispering about something.

"We can't let anything happen to us or these kids." Mrs. Dinkleberg said.

"I know, hon." Her husband said as he put his arm around her. "We just need to get somewhere secure until this mess is over, soon the army will do its job and we can all go back to our lives; try to get some rest, hon.

"How can I with those things out there?" She hissed.

"Hey man." Bucky suddenly said to the teen, startling him. "You really gave that bitch hell."

"Yeah; I was ready to tear the girl's head off." Danny chuckled and saw Chester and Timmy huddled in a corner near where Tootie and her mother were. "How's Chester doing?"

"He's okay, it was just a shock."

"We're lucky as hell nobody got nabbed on the way in here."

"No kidding." Bucky sighed. "How're your boys doing?"

"They're good, I think." He said, looking over at said boys.

"They tough."

"They're just children, Bucky." He glared.

"Didn't ya say they both spent days survivin all on their own? It's not just any children can do a thing like that." He smirked. Danny scowled before walking away, and straight into Vicky, who was still pacing around the room. The two teenagers glared at each other for a few moments before the dark-haired boy glanced at her mother on the ground.

"What's wrong with her?"

"She's got a pathetic heart condition." She scoffed. "She takes nitroglycerin tablets pretty regularly; I've seen a few bad attacks that she couldn't get over and my dad needed to take her to the hospital, but that's not really an option right now."

"Was anyone here when you guys got here?"

"No, this place was pretty wrecked, but we had to pull a couple of bodies out of the office." She explained.

"What do you think about all this?"

"What is there to think?" She snarled. "Ghosts are walking around, slaughtering people, and turning them into monsters!"

"So, how did you end up here?" He glared.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is how did you end up in a pharmacy in Amity Park when the kids you were meant to be looking after were left abandoned in Dimsdale?!" He shouted, causing a couple of people to look over. Vicky glared at him before turning away.

"I was upstairs getting a bath ready for myself when I heard that girl Chloe screaming downstairs, I ran down and saw one of those things tearing into her." She explained. "I ran out of the front door and saw dozens of them walking around the street and flying over my head, I ran back home and my Mom dragged me and Tootie into the car and we just drove."

"What about Timmy and Jimmy?" Danny snarled.

"I didn't know where the boys were, they weren't downstairs when I ran down and saw Chloe getting killed." She hissed. "I thought they were outside playing somewhere and had been killed!"

"That's funny because I found them both hiding in a treehouse when I was getting out of a car crash." He roared. "They'd been surviving by themselves, thinking that you had been killed and that's why you didn't come and get them, not that you ran away and left them to die!"

"What was I supposed to do?! What would you have done in my position?! We don't all have fancy ghost swords to protect us!"

"Sword or no sword, I would have at least the guts to make sure the boys were dead before running off; if I hadn't of found them, who knows what could have happened to them!"

"That's enough! The last thing we need are those things coming back." Bucky exclaimed as he got between them both. Danny continued to scowl at her before walking away to check on Timmy.

"Hey there." He smiled as he knelt to the boy's level.

"Hi." Timmy smiled.

"Any word from Kwan?" He asked.

"Nothing." Timmy frowned. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it, you're doing a good job," Danny reassured the boy as he stood back up. He noticed an office and remembered what Vicky said about dragging bodies out of there, so he knew it was somewhat safe. As he cautiously walked into the office, he took notice that both Jimmy and Timmy were following close behind him, but it didn't worry him...

* * *

They stepped inside but the only thing there was a desk, a TV that was probably broken, a door that led to the back alley and a mattress covered in blood. Danny saw a door that led into the pharmacy, but when he tried the door he growled when it was locked. He took a deep breath to calm himself down when he saw that Jimmy and Timmy were staring at him.

"Everyone out there seems alright to you?" He asked them.

"Yeah." Timmy shrugged.

"Well, maybe not Vicky's mom," Jimmy added.

"Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on her." He reassured, but frown when he saw that fear in their eyes. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"There was that thing in the school," Jimmy muttered. "It tried to get us."

"I know." Danny sighed, not wanting to remember that awful image of Dolores dying in her son's arms.

"But you stopped it," Timmy said.

"Yeah, I did."

"Can you do that more often?" Jimmy asked hopefully.

"Well, I'm not gonna go looking for them." He frowned. "But I'm gonna try."

"Good." Timmy smiled. Danny smiled at them as he got up and went to pick up a wooden pallet blocking the door to the ally, and a cane came falling out from behind it. Danny frowned as he leaned the pallet against the wall next to the door and picked up the cane.

"What's that?" Timmy asked.

"It's a cane, Turner." Jimmy frowned.

"It belonged to the owner of this clinic," Danny explained. "He'd zip around here on it from time to time."

"Was he sick?" Timmy asked.

"No, I think he was okay." He smiled. "I actually saw him hit shoplifters with it; this cane's protected this place better than any guard dog ever could, plus, he knew how to make it look cool, like you with your hat." He smiled at Timmy as he leaned the cane against the wall near the pallet.

"My parents gave it to me." He glared. "They thought I was gonna be a girl so basically all my clothes were pink."

"With a squeaky voice like that, I don't blame them." Jimmy grinned.

"Shut it Nerdtron," Timmy growled and Danny laughed as the bucked tooth boy turned a few shades of red. After a few moments, Danny finally stopped laughing and knelt next to them both.

"How are you doing with everything outside?" He eventually asked.

"It's not good." Jimmy frowned, looking to his shoes.

"But I think it'll be okay; as Bucky said, the army will do its thing and we can all go home," Timmy added hopefully. Jimmy glared and was about to say something, but a look from Danny stopped him.

"What about you?" Jimmy suddenly asked the teen. "Don't you have a family to go home to?"

"Let's not talk about that," Danny quickly said before giving them a weak smile. "Do either of you play sports?"

"I play volleyball, but I don't like it." Timmy scowled.

"I'm not crazy about it either." Danny chuckled.

"Why don't you want to talk about your family?" Jimmy frowned, not liking how Danny was trying to change the subject. "Do they, like...hate you or something?" He gulped. Danny froze for a brief moment before looking away from the kids.

"It's... It's just complicated, that's all." He quietly said.

"Why? Did you fight? I know I fight with my parents sometimes." Timmy said.

"Yeah, we got into a fight." He replied before giving them a scowl. "Look, I've got no idea where my family is anymore and I just wish things would've been different before all this happened; I got into their lab and caused some trouble, and then we didn't talk for a while, but let's just keep that between you two and me for now, okay?" He asked and they nodded

"Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"What if our parents go by to my house and we're not there?" Timmy unexpectedly asked, throwing the teen off guard.

"I... don't think they will," Danny said belatedly, wincing at the guilty feeling creeping up his spine at the sad, almost devasted, expressions on Jimmy and Timmy's faces. "I mean, they want you both to be safe.; we'll find them if we can." He quickly corrected, only slightly ease their worry.

"I've got my walkie-talkie in case they try that way," Timmy added, smiling feebly.

"Stay close to me until then, okay?" He said firmly and they nodded. Satisfied, Danny started opening the desk drawers and searching for the key, only finding the remote for the TV inside. As he looked around, the folded up picture fell out of his pocket and glided to the ground. Noticing this, Jimmy carefully picked it up and gently unfolding it. He was shocked to see it was of Danny with fully black hair standing in front of a building named Fenton Works.

The teenager looked really happy in the picture.

Standing beside him were two adults in jumpsuits, an older teen with long, orange hair, a goth girl, and a boy holding a PDA. Jimmy was about to say something when the door to the office door suddenly burst open, causing all three of them to jump out of their skins, and Valerie Gray came marching in, a steely expression edged into her face. She and Danny stared each other down for a few seconds before the next five words she spoke shattered Danny's entire resolve.

"I know who you are."...


	7. Starless

**Chapter 7: Starless**

It took a few seconds for Danny's brain to process what Valerie had just said, but when it did his face went almost as white as the other half of his hair. The teen looked at Timmy and Jimmy, who keep looking back at them both in a mix of both confusion and intrigue. It seemed that Valerie didn't care if they heard this or not, but if that was the case, he didn't know why she didn't confront him when they were with the others. Danny quickly looked back at the girl in yellow and cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're Danny Fenton." She replied, causing him to flinch You're a student at Casper High who went missing about a month ago, but your parents never filed a missing person's report; they told people that you moved to live with an aunt in the county." She explained. "Folks around town said that he ran away or maybe his parents had killed him, unlike the other kids at school I paid attention to my surroundings."

"So?" Danny snarled, crossing his arms

"I don't really care what you were doing before all this happened, frankly, we need all the people we can get, safety in numbers and all that." She joked before her face turned serious. "But **do not** tell the people out there who you are."

"Why not?"

"Because the Fentons are the cause of all this horror!" She snarled. "When this all started me and a few others went to FentonWorks because we knew that they were making weapons in their lab in the basement, but when we finally got there we found the weapons along with some kind of green portal that these things were flying out of! I was the only one to make it out alive!" She screamed, her eyes becoming misty.

"I... I'm so sorry." Danny whispered in shock; what had his parents done?

"Did you tell anyone out there who you were, or that you were tied to this mess?" She asked.

"The world is ending out there." He glared. "Who cares who I am?"

"If you don't think people will find any reason to turn on you, especially when shit hits the fan, you're insane." She scoffed before sighing. "I might not have really known you that well before all of this but you seem like an okay guy, and the last thing we need is drama out there." She explained before gesturing to Timmy and Jimmy, who were wide-eyed staring at them. "You've got these kids to take care of, and...look, don't make me wrong on this."

"I don't plan to." He said as he took a step closer to her.

"Good, because if this lasts longer than a few days, and you're a detriment to the group, then we'd have a problem."

"I hear you."

"I'll just keep it to myself." She promised and turned to leave when Danny unexpectedly put his hand on her shoulder.

"Wait." He asked. "What happened to my family? And Sam and Tucker?" He pleaded and Val looked to the floor for a moment before meeting his eyes.

"I honestly don't know, they weren't any sign f the Fentons when we went to their home and no one has seen the Mansons or the Foleys since this all started; I am sorry Danny." She muttered and with that Valerie walked out of the office. Danny stood in the same spot for a few seconds before he approached the door, preparing to leave.

"Want to head back?" He asked the boys, putting on a smile.

"Okay," Jimmy said as they walked up to Danny, holding his wrist bashfully. He held up the photo and Danny snatched it up. As the teen stared at the picture he could felt the tears welling up before he took a deep breath and stuff the picture back into his pocket.

"Danny? You're not bad, right?" Timmy suddenly asked, catching him by surprise.

"I, uh...why are you asking me that?" He asked nervously.

"That lady said your parents sent you away; was that because of that thing you did?" Jimmy asked. "And what did she mean by your parents are the cause of all this pain?"

"It's complicated; listen, sometimes things happen or...you do things and you can't explain them; I don't know if my parents caused all this but I promise you I'm not a bad guy; is it ok if we can keep what happened in here between us?" He begged and almost collapsed in relief when the nodded. "Let's, uh...head back to the others." He sighed when Bucky walked in.

"What's up?" He asked when he sensed the tension in the room.

Suddenly Timmy's radio buzzed to life and Kwan's static voice crackled out.

" _ **Hey, there, this is Kwan, and, uh, I'm kinda in a jam here.**_ " He said " _ **Uh, little boy with the hat, if you're there, can you put your big brother on the phone? Or on the talkie, or whatever?**_ " He asked and Timmy quickly handed it to Danny.

"This is Danny, what's up?"

" _ **So... I'm down at that car lot and, well, I-I'm stuck.**_ "

"Stuck?"

" _ **Yeah, I, uh saw a chance to get some supplies for the group and a bunch of those infected ones got the jump on me; I'm hiding over here, but those fuckers just won't leave.**_ "

"Ok Kwan, we're gonna talk it over and send a group to come get you, alright?"

" _ **Awesome, I'll sit tight 'til then.**_ " The Asian teen said before Danny turned off the walkie-talkie, then turned to the boys.

"I'm gonna hold onto this until we get Kwan back, okay? I'll take good care of it." He promised.

"What do you think?" Bucky asked.

"I think SpongeBob's not great around ghosts, and you've got your son here; I'll take Valerie and her aim down to the car lot, get Kwan and get back here as fast as I can."

"If that's what you want to do..."

"Somebody's got to." He stated when Valerie suddenly appeared, having been listening in to their conversation.

"I'm in, just let me grab some anti-ghost guns we found and we can go." She smirked and left with Bucky following close behind. Before going after them, Danny knelt down to look both Jimmy and Timmy dead in the eyes.

"I know I'm not your brother, or even related to either of you, but if you need anything, I'm your guy, okay We're gotta try to take care of each other now."

"Understood." Jimmy nodded.

"Deal," Timmy smirked when Valerie came back.

"You ready to head out?" She asked.

"You got it, you?"

"Born ready."...

* * *

It was night by the time Danny and Valerie managed to get to the car sale lot. Danny took noticed that there were more ghosts flying around than earlier. When they got to the entrance they saw it was overrun with infected. A nearby zombie growled and Danny and Valerie ducked down behind the wall. Valerie quickly took her gun out but after a moment, the zombie walked away and Lee exhaled a breath he didn't even know he was holding.

They peeked over the fence and saw a shadow moving behind a truck

"Did you see that?" She asked and he nodded. The truck door opened partly as Valerie pointed a gun at the sound, but lowered it when the door opened fully and saw it was just Kwan hiding inside.

"GUYS! Oh, man, I'm glad you're here." He grinned.

"Jesus, Kwan!" She hissed as Kwan got out of the truck and jumped over the wall., crouching down with them.

"That wasn't so hard." Danny smiled in relief.

"Can we get out of here before any of these things notice us?" Valerie desperately asked as she nervously looked around.

"Not yet, there's a survivor trapped in there," Kwan said and everyone turned to look at the car lot store, where there were zombies pounding on the front door.

"No way, we gotta go; NOW." Val scowled.

"No! I was out here looking for gas for the bus and then, in there I heard crying coming." He explained.

"Who is it?" Danny asked.

"It's Star, she's a friend from school." He replied. "We talked and she got frightened; I was trying to get in and help her and she started yelling and saying I was bitten, I tried to convince her I wasn't, and that's when all these guys came out of nowhere and a couple almost got me, and I ended up hiding in the truck."

"Lucky you; now let's go!"

"We can't just leave her." Danny glared.

"You guys are suicidal!"

"We're saving her, with or without you," Kwan said

"I thought Star was your friend?" Danny asked and she flinched.

"Fine, let's go save the damsel in distress." She sighed as she drew her gun and everyone moved to the next wall, crouching behind it.

"We have to kill every one of them in here, as quietly as possible; the noise attracts these things," Danny explained and peeked over to have a look around. He noticed a cushion lying on the floor by the truck Kwan had been hiding in. "There's a pillow over there." He pointed out to him.

"That's about as far as I got when it came to getting supplies." He explained.

"I might have an idea for it." He grinned and they all sneaked over and hid behind the front bumper of the truck.

"We're a little naked out here, except for your sword and Valeria's gun, and we can't use that much." Kwan glared. Danny quickly grabbed the pillow and they all ran over to hide behind an RV.

"Get out your gun," Danny ordered Valerie.

"But what about the noise?" She asked.

"Just follow my lead; stay right behind me." He instructed as he approached an infected zombie and smashed the pillow over its face. Valerie put the gun against the pillow and pulled the trigger, killing the zombie somewhat quietly.

"That was sick!" Kwan exclaimed in a whisper as they hid back behind the RV. Danny noticed an infected by the wall in front of the RV and got an idea. He opened the car door and took the spark plug. Before closing the door, he unlocked the gear shift and gave the car a push. It rolled backward, crushing the zombie against the stone wall.

" That was awesome!" Kwan smiled.

Danny smiled back as he placed the spark plug on the ground and stomped on it. He took a piece of porcelain from inside the crushed spark plug and threw it into the window, smashing it to pieces. The infected heard the noise and briefly turned to the group, but their attention was quickly returned to the crying girl inside the car lot building. Danny frowned and pulled out his sword. They returned to the brick wall and Danny prepared to use the blade on the infected standing nearby.

He approached the zombie and stabbed it in the back of the head, then hid behind the RV with Kwan.

Danny whistled at another zombie, who began slowly walking towards him. Danny quickly shot forward and ran the infected straight through the chest. All three of them silently sneaked over to the zombie they had trapped behind the car. It clawed and snapped its jaws at them, but couldn't reach. Danny stabbed the zombie in the head, and the infected dissolved like the rest. Feeling a little exposed, Kwan looked around and grinned as he grabbed a fire ax inside a broken glass case.

"Are you two done?" Valerie hissed.

"Two more to go." Danny glared at the two still trying to get to the girl.

"We'll try to have your back, but this gun's a liability," Valerie warned. Danny nodded and everyone approached the door. Danny sneaked ahead and stabbed the first zombie in the side of the head, and decapitated the second one.

"Rad." Kwan grinned as Danny pounded on the door.

"Hello in there? We're here to help!" He called to her.

"Please, just go away!" The girl cried through tears.

"Let's go, guys." Valerie shrugged.

"In a minute," Danny growled before turning back to the door. "If you open up, we can take you somewhere safer, we've got a group in town."

"No, no, no! Please, no!"

"She's in trouble!" Kwan gasped

"Star! We're coming in!" Danny shouted. He jiggled the handle, but it was locked. He gritted his teeth in frustration and kicked against the door.

"Stop, just stop! I'm coming out." Star whimpered as she opened the door and walked out. Danny's eyes widened when he saw her. He could still recognize her, however, she was incredibly pale and was holding a bloody wound on her abdomen.

"You're hurt." He acknowledged sympathetically.

"I...I said stay away." She muttered tearfully

"We need to get you help," Kwan stated.

"It's too late for that." She sobbed.

"Guys, she's been bitten," Valerie said, pointing to the wound she was holding. Danny looked closer and was shocked to see hints of green mixed with her blood.

"I told you." She glared at Kwan through her tears. "I said go away, I've been bit, but you wouldn't just leave!" She screamed.

"Let's calm down," Danny said. "You could be fine."

"I won't be fine, my best friend was bitten." She explained, becoming more and more distressed. "You get sick and you die and you come back and you kill anything you can find!"

"I'm so sorry," Danny muttered.

"I don't want that, please, just leave me, please go." She sobbed.

"Okay, we'll leave, just try to take care of yourself, for whatever time you have left." Valerie said and thankfully the boys didn't argue with her on this. Star turned to Valerie and noticed her gun.

"You have a gun." She whispered in an awestruck tone.

"So?" She glared.

"Can I...borrow it?"

"What do you mean 'borrow'?"

"I can just, you know, end this and then-then there's no problem."

"What?!" Danny cried in horror.

"PLEASE! I don't want to be one of them!" She sobbed but they didn't respond. "Give it to me, PLEASE!" She desperately cried and lunged for the gun, only just missing it.

"Please, step back," Valerie warned as she aimed the gun at Star as she slowly approached her.

"It'll just take two seconds, just one bullet, and I can be with my family, and it'll all be fine." She sobbed.

"I said back the fuck up!" Valerie shouted again. Star continued to approach her as she stepped backward. She lunged at her again, trying to grab the gun, and yet again missed. By now Valerie was backed up against the railing as her former friend tried to take the gun. Danny and Kwan tried to pull her away when the balcony suddenly broke and everyone fell, the gun sliding away. As everyone tried to gather their bearings, Star had already picked it up.

"Whoa, take it easy." Danny quickly said. "We just want to help."

"You can't." She sobbed as she pointed the gun to her head. Danny ran toward her, but she pulled the trigger, crumbling to the ground. Kwan slowly picked up the gun, horrified and shaking. He suddenly covered his mouth with his hand before vomiting all over the street. Due to all the noise, infected and ghosts started coming toward the group.

"Shit!" Danny exclaimed and they ran to the car drove away quickly...


	8. Pill Pandemonium

No one spoke a single word as they drove through the haunted streets of Amity Park. It seemed that the ghosts and infected had either lost their trail or given up, either way, they were grateful. As Kwan kept his eyes on the road Danny could see the tears and pain in them and Valerie still had her gun raised as she watched the world go by out the window, still on edge. Danny looked down at his hands and felt sick to his stomach when he saw that they were both caked blood and ectoplasm.

Suddenly the car jolted to a halt and Danny realized they were back.

"Everyone alright?" Bucky asked when he saw the downcast expression on their faces when they got inside.

"We had some close calls, but Kwan is fine, and...well, yeah...we're okay," Danny explained, not meeting anyone's gaze.

"I've got a few cans of gas for the bus in the trunk of my car," Kwan said.

"Good to hear it." Bucky smiled.

"And things back here?" Valerie asked as she looked around and was relieved to see everyone was still there.

"Still quiet." Mr. Dinkleberg replied.

"Nicky is still in and out over there; she won't survive any more stress." Mrs. Dinkleberg added as Nicky moaned in pain.

"The next order of business is getting those pills out of the pharmacy," Danny stated. Everyone nodded in agreement and continued looking for the key. As he looked around, Danny noticed Kwan was somewhat hiding in the corner. "How are you doing?" The black and white-haired teen asked.

"I'm alive." He muttered.

"Listen, back at the car lot..."

"How can it be that bad so fast?" He whimpered.

"When things are taken away, people do the craziest shit." He explained.

"I'm not giving up, not for anything." Kwan glared before his gaze dropped. "I guess Starr really wanted that gun..."

"Seems like." Danny frowned.

"Why didn't you tell Valerie to just give it to her?"

"People can't give up like that, this will pass."

"I'm with you." Kwan nodded.

"I'm glad to hear it." Danny smiled and left to check on the others and search for the key. He looked over and saw the boys talking to each and it seemed Timmy was annoying Jimmy; Danny laughed a little, it was a good, refreshing thing seeing them act like normal kids in all this horror. He then noticed Valerie staring at him so he went to check on her, after all, Star was as much her friend as Kwan's.

"Story of the century, huh?" He joked, but it didn't get a glimpse of a smile.

"How can you be joking at a time like this." She glared. Danny sighed in defeat and went to see how SpongeBob was doing with guarding the door.

"How are we doing?" He asked the blonde.

"Good, want to go have a look for those keys outside?" He asked with a grin. Danny nodded and they stepped outside...

* * *

Thankfully there was a metal gate sealing off the door from the street. They saw just over a dozen infected aimlessly wandering around the streets. Danny examined each and every infected and saw a man trapped under a collapsed, dressed in the uniform of the clinic.

"That guy over there might have the keys," Danny said, pointing him out

"How can you be sure?"

"I used to live around here, that guy is wearing the uniform for this place." He explained. "The keys being on him is as good a bet as we can make."

"I agree, we just need to figure out how to get out there and get them, you wouldn't need long, right?"

"No, just a few seconds; maybe there's a way to distract them and buy me some time." Danny frowned as he looked around the street and saw a store window that was full of TVs. Danny suddenly got an idea and pulled out the TV remote he had found in the back office and aimed it at the TV store, hoping that the power hadn't be cut off. He pressed a few buttons and the TVs across the street turned on.

"Well done." SpongeBob cheered.

"Thank god." He sighed in relief as several zombies instantly flocked towards the static. However, it wasn't enough noise and the infected humans began to wander around again. Danny groaned in annoyance, realizing that they would have to break the glass in order to make the static louder. Danny thought about making a run for it when he saw a brick on the ground just outside the gate. He carefully opened the gate and took the brick.

Before the infected saw him, he threw it at the TV store, shattering the glass, allowing the static sound to become more loud and clear.

As he ran back to the safety of the gate, all the zombies are drawn to the noise. Once he was certain they were all distracted, Danny got up and pulled out his sword, preparing to leave, when SpongeBob suddenly grabbed his wrist in a tight grip.

"Be careful." He pleaded.

"Just keep an eye out, I'm going in," Danny ordered as he stepped outside again. When the zombies didn't acknowledge him, Danny ran to the infected pinned into the telephone pole and knelt in front of him; the infected growled like a rabid dog and clawed at him but was unable to reach him. Luckily for him though the zombie seemed to only be able the top half of its body. Sorrow almost consumed Danny as he looked down at the man.

He knew who this was.

The employee would sometimes sneak him and his friends some candy when his uptight boss wasn't looking and was one of the few people in Amity Park to call Dash Baxter and his gang out when they were caught bullying Danny and his friends. He was a decent man who didn't deserve this terrible fate; no one did. If Danny ever did find his parents and they admitted all this was their fault he wouldn't be responsible for his actions.

With a look of great pain, Danny raised his sword sadly, then stabbed the man in the neck.

The infected man stopped moving and Danny bent down to look for the keys; when suddenly the man growled and clawed at him again. Danny cried out and took a few steps back in surprise, thankful that the creature had missed him by a second. Regretfully, Danny raised his sword again and chopped the head clean off. As the head rolled away, Danny leaned down to get the keys, finding them in the shirt's front pocket. He took the keys and waved them above his head to show SpongeBob.

The blonde man smiled, but when he looked back at the TV store it quickly dropped.

"RUN!" He screamed. Danny turned and saw the infected were no longer distracted by the TVs and had begun making their way toward Danny. The teen ran back to the pharmacy and dove in as SpongeBob shut the gate. He quickly locked it and they ran back inside...

* * *

"That was close, way too close." SpongeBob cried as they ran into the clinic, gasping for breath. Danny wanted to reply but they had far more important matters to attend to. He ran over to where Nicky, Tootie, and the Dinklebergs were huddled.

"I've got the keys." He smiled and Tootie looked ready to cry.

"Thank you so much! You're amazing!" The little girl sobbed as she hugged his waist as tightly as she could. Danny warmly smiled at her before turning to Valerie, who nodded in understanding. The two of them entered the office and Danny unlocked and opened the door to the supplies. Satisfied, he and Valerie entered the pharmacy to get Nicky's pills.

As they stepped inside, however, an alarm suddenly went off.

"Shit." Valerie hissed.

"We gotta hurry!" Danny exclaimed. They both ran through the aisles, searching for the pills. After a few seconds of searching, Danny found them and grabbed two bottles. He turned to get back to the others and gasped. Through the windows showing the outside of the store, Danny could see even more infected were being drawn to the alarm and watched in horror as they began pounding on the door and windows.

"I'm gonna get the bus pulled up 'round back!" Bucky exclaimed.

"Do it fast, We've gotta get outta here!" Vicky shouted.

"I don't plan on dilly-dallying." He glared before turning to Mrs. Dinkleberg. "You need to take the kids and Nicky into the office and barricade the living hell outta the backdoor behind me." He ordered and turned to her husband. "When you hear me honking in the alley, start getting people outta here."

"OK." The Dinklebergs said and ran into the office with AJ, Chester, Tootie, Vicky, and Nicky.

"The rest of you need to make sure our defenses stay up 'til then," Bucky said and turned to Kwan. "I better take that ax in case I run into any of 'em on the way to the bus." He explained and the Asian teen tossed the ax to him. Just then, everyone froze when they heard the sound of metal bending and breaking.

"Guys, that door's not locked anymore!" SpongeBob cried.

"Shit! You guys, get on it! I'll get back as fast as I can!" Bucky shouted as he ran off, and Danny, Kwan, and Valerie tried to hold the doors closed. Danny looked around and saw Timmy and Jimmy hadn't gone with the Dinkleberg's.

"Stay away from the windows." He warned them.

"We need help in here! Please hurry!" Mrs. Dinkleberg suddenly shouted in distress from the back office and Kwan ran off to help them, leaving the others holding the doors closed.

"Hey, Danny." SpongeBob suddenly said. "If we don't make it through this, you should know that... I think you're a great guy."

"We WILL make it through this!" Danny shouted as the infected continued pounding into the door and partially opened it, knocking him forward. He rushed back to push the door closed again. Unfortunately, the infected finally managed to push back an empty shelf blocking the window next to SpongeBob and started climbing into the store.

Valerie stepped away from the door, drew her gun.

She quickly shot several zombies that were getting close to them and ran off to shoot down more.

"Jimmy! Timmy! Can you look for something to stick in between the handles?! Something real strong, okay?!" Danny cried out desperately. They both nodded and ran off to search. By now the infected had partially broken the door open and Danny struggled to push it closed again.

"That window is done for!" SpongeBob cried.

"GO, I'LL BE OK!" Danny shouted and the blonde man ran off, and unfortunately, Danny struggled, even more, to hold the door closed on his own. Just then, Timmy ran up to him, holding the cane they had found in the office. Danny took the cane and shoved it through the handles of the front door. A scream suddenly tore through the air and Danny saw near a boarded-up window, some infected had grabbed onto Jimmy.

Instantly, Danny ran over to the boy and pulled him out of the zombies' grasp.

The infected tried to grab for them again but Valerie quickly shot at the creatures until both boys were clear. As she shot more zombies Bucky came bursting through the back door.

"Let's GO!" He shouted as Vicky entered behind him.

"MOVE IT, TWERPS!" She screeched. As everyone ran for the door, Timmy screamed as a crawling infected grabbed onto him. Danny stabbed his sword through the zombie's head, immobilizing it, and the bucked tooth boy crawled away. Vicky held the door open as everyone ran out; except for Danny, as the orange-haired girl put her hand on his chest to prevent him from leaving.

"You're not coming with us, you son of a bitch!" She shouted.

"What?!" Danny angrily exclaimed before Vicky suddenly punched him and he fell to the floor, his vision fading. He could hear muffled voices but he couldn't make out what they say. He thought back to when he was in that car or... back there when he saw Bucky McBadbat suddenly rush back in and killed the zombie next to Danny with an ax.

The man smiled down at him as he held out his hand.

"I'm not letting somebody else get eaten today." He stated as Danny took his hand and helped him stand up. "Especially a good friend." He smiled. Danny returned he smile and swiftly closed the door behind him as the infected swarmed the store...


	9. Lights Out

After escaping the pharmacy, the group drove around until near midnight when the bus they had taken ran out of gas. Thankfully they had stopped right next to a motor inn just outside of town. Danny, Valerie, and Bucky went to investigate to make sure it was safe, and fortunately, it seemed someone had already been through as all they found were dead people or giant puddles of ectoplasm.

After clearing the area, everyone piled out of the bus and helped clean up the bodies and goo.

As Nicky added the last zombie to the pile of dead humans, some blood leaked onto her hands, and she wiped them on her already dirty clothes as Tootie looked on in sadness and disgust. Noticing her distress, Timmy walked over to her to talk to her, but it proved to be a challenge. After the bodies were gone the Dinklebergs unpacked the boxes on the bus.

Jimmy was standing near a car, listening to the car radio as Danny looked sadly at the family photo.

 _ **"Meanwhile, Atlanta and Califonia have been downgraded temporarily to an eight, with attacks and rioting being reported all around. Citizens are currently advised to stay in their homes or move towards the cities of Retroville and Atlanta. If citizens choose to stay in their homes, they are urged to be near their radios and await further instructions. Moving in the cities of Retroville or Atlanta may become necessary in order to ensure the safety of all citizens."**_ The radioman explained.

"Will we ever go home?" Chester asked his dad sadly.

"I-I don't know son, I hope soon," Bucky replied in a defeated tone. Danny flinched slightly when he heard screams and gunfire in the distance. He looked over and saw Jimmy glaring at the radio. Growing concerned, Danny moved towards the boy genius.

"Hey, Jim." He smiled, but Jimmy held out his hand for him to be quiet, still listening to the radio.

_**"With uncountable severe emergencies in all counties, cities and their current level of disaster are as follows: Augusta, stage eight disaster; Columbus, stage six infection zone; Bikini Bottom, stage nine catastrophe; Athens, stage eight disaster; Dimsdale, stage seven outbreak; Amity Park, stage nine catastrophe; Retroville, stage nine catastrophe; Albany, stage nine catastrophe. Once again, Bikini is now a stage nine catastrophe."** _

"We should go to Retroville." Jimmy suddenly said.

"What?" Danny frowned.

"What if my parents went back there? I just can't stay here knowing that they could be trapped in that city!"

"It sounds like nobody knows what's happening there."

"But there could still be a chance!" Jimmy begged with pleading eyes, causing Danny's heart to ache; but the teen quickly regained his composure.

"Timmy, come over here for a second!" He called to the pink hatted boy; though he was confused, Timmy obeyed and Danny knelt to the boys' lever, staring them dead in the face. "Do you two remember when I went into your house before I knew either of you were there? Well, I found an answering machine with three messages on it." He explained carefully. "Your parents left them for Vicky saying they were still in Bikini Bottom and it sounded like it was pretty bad over there, I don't think they managed to get out of the city."

"W-What?" Jimmy whimpered as tears welled up in both boys' eyes.

"Th-They could still be there hiding like we were!" Timmy said, trying to fight the tears.

"Timmy..." Danny started.

"NO!" The boy shouted, get the others' attention. "They're still there! You don't know anything you white-haired freak!" He cried and ran off to the other kids, Jimmy following close behind him. Danny wanted to go after them but decided they need some time to calm down and process what he had said. He noticed Bucky and the Dinklebergs looking and him so he approached them.

"Hey, guys." The teen sighed.

"Close call back there," Bucky said

"Thanks for picking me up."

"No problem." The former baseball player smiled and they shook hands.

"We have to take care of each other." Mr. Dinkleberg stated.

"Indeed we do." His wife agreed

"Hey, about Timmy and Jimmy." Bucky suddenly said, looking at the boys as his son tried to engage them.

"Yeah?" The teen asked nervously.

"Ya said you weren't the kids' brother once."

"I did, yeah."

"So you can't treat them like they are." He said. "But you can take care of them, hell, maybe better than that bitch ever could." He glared at Vicky, who was leaning against the wall, scowling at anyone who moved near her.

"Thanks, Bucky." Danny chuckled.

"I got your back, kid." He grinned. Danny nodded and went to check on the others. He approached Valerie and Kwan, who were both near a table with boxes of supplies.

"How're you two doing?" He asked.

"I'm doing okay, you know, considering," Kwan replied.

"Yeah, same," Valerie added.

"I just can't stop thinking about Star." The Asian teen said. "We couldn't have saved her, could we?"

"I don't think so." Danny sighed.

"I know it's stupid...she was such a...it's just that... I think that I liked her before all this bullshit happened." He chuckled bitterly.

"She liked you too." Valerie suddenly said.

"Thanks, Val," Kwan replied weakly before walking away solemnly. Danny looked at Valerie but it seemed like she wanted to be alone as well so he walked away and saw Timmy and Jimmy sat on the back bumper of an RV, away from everyone else. Feeling the guilt creeping in his gut, Danny approached the boys, taking notice that Vicky was watching him hatefully but ignoring her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you." He explained as he knelt down. "It's possible that your parents might be safe, hiding in Bikini Bottom; but I just don't want you both to be disappointed or hurt even more."

"We get that." Jimmy sniffed, wiping away the tears.

"It's... I fell...and my walkie-talkie broke and Kwan broke the other one when he went to get the gas." Timmy said, catching Danny off guard; Timmy started sobbing again as fresh tears fell from his red eyes. "I know I need to be tough and I know it doesn't make any sense...but it's how I used to talk to my mom and dad...and now they're gone; it's gone."

"Hey, I didn't say they were gone." Danny quickly said as he placed a comforting hand on their shoulders. "If two ten-year-olds can survive all on their own in this nightmare then I certain their parents will be ok, I mean, you two had to get your survival instincts from somewhere, right?" He smiled and both boys nodded weakly, their spirits lifted slightly.

"Actually, I'm just over eleven and three quarters," Jimmy said, causing both Danny and Jimmy to chuckle.

"Hey Danny, come here for a second!" Vicky suddenly ordered.

"Let me go deal with this and we'll get you kids settled in some beds." He smiled and walked over to the angry redhead. "What do you want?" He glared, not forgetting what she did to him in the pharmacy.

"You like those twerps?" She asked, gesturing to Timmy and Jimmy, who had rejoined the other three kids.

"Cut the crap Vicky; why'd you tried to kill me?" He snarled.

"I did that because I know that Daniel James Fenton and his freakshow family are the monsters who caused all this death and destruction." She snapped, causing Danny's blood to freeze and she grinned, showing her teeth like a hungry predator. "And so will everyone else if you cross me again; you hear me?" She asked as she took a step forward and got in his face. "I know who you are and I don't give a shit about what happens to me, you watch your ass."

"Hey, Danny; do you have a second?" SpongeBob suddenly called from the motor inn entrance.

"Sure." He replied and turned around to see Vicky glaring at him, before running to talking to the blonde man.

"I just wanted to say thank you." He smiled brightly. "Some of us probably would be dead if it weren't for you, Nicky definitely."

"I don't think some people agree," Danny replied, still feeling Vicky glaring daggers into the back of his head.

"We're lucky to have you," He stated more firmly as more gunfire was suddenly heard in the distance.

"I hope that's the sound of us winning this thing," Valerie said as she stood next to Danny, all three of them looking up the night road in the direction of the gunshots and screams

"Me too." Danny sighed.

"Y'know, this motor inn's pretty damn dependable." Bucky suddenly pointed out. "We block off the entrances with some cars and keep someone on watch, we could stay here until the military rolls through."

"I actually agree with that plan." Val smiled.

"Me too." SpongeBob giggled excitedly.

"We've got beds, we've got water, and most importantly, we've got light; there are worse places to call home." Danny grinned.

"You know, guys, I think it's going to be okay." SpongeBob beamed happily; when out of the blue all the lights on the street and at the motor inn suddenly turn off, engulfing everything to the darkness of the night...


	10. Familiar Faces

It had been three long months since Danny and the group had settled into the motor inn to wait for rescue; which unfortunately never came. It was well into Autumn now, with the forest leaves turning a lovely shade of amber and heavy rain. Tensions were running high in the camp, Danny was paranoid Valerie or worst, Vicky would tell everyone who his parents were and what they had done. They were running so low on food that they had to start sending people into the forest to hunt and scavenge.

Today it was Danny, Kwan, and Bucky's turn to hunt.

As Danny and Kwan checked their traps, they were disappointed to see there was nothing. Danny suddenly stopped when he saw an infected eating rabbit that was caught in one of their traps. He quietly walked up behind it and stabbed it in the back of the head as Kwan ran up behind him, gun already drawn.

"What'd they get this time?" He asked the teen

"Looks like a rabbit."

"Well, that's another meal lost." He sighed as they started walking again. "I still can't believe we went through all that vending machine food in three months! It seemed like so much at the time."

"A rabbit's hardly a meal, Kwan, but...I'd take it." Danny sighed. "We're all hungry."

"No kidding." He chuckled. "When I accidentally grabbed for Valerie's rations the other night, I thought she was gonna take off my hand! And last night I heard your friend SpongeBob laying in bed just naming types of pie, it was driving me nuts, I think he's starting to lose it."

"We're all on edge, just cut them some slack."

"Yeah, you're right, I wish I knew for sure how much food we have left."

"We'll manage."

"Maybe, you know some people aren't too happy about the way Valerie is handling rations."

"Valerie knows it's important to keep the adults fed and functioning, but she also knows the kids need their strength, especially in times like this; sometimes that means someones gotta miss a meal," Danny explained.

"You think Bucky's having any more luck than we are out here?" Kwan asked.

"I sure hope so."

"Yeah, between the lack of food and Bucky and Valerie fighting all the time, things are getting pretty tense back at the motor inn; you know Bucky's been talking about taking off if he can get that RV running, right?"

"He's got a son to look out for." Danny reasoned.

"And he's safest in a big group, going out on his own will get them both killed." Kwan frowned. Can't blame him, though; did you hear Vicky going off on him and the kids last night? What's that crazy girl's deal, anyway? Seems like she's got a problem with you in particular."

"I have no idea." He replied, not look at him.

"Maybe that's the way she is, but that she needs to chill out." Kwan huffed. "Didn't she punch you in the face one time?"

"The crazy bitch knocked me flat out, if it wasn't for Bucky, I'd be as good as dead." The skinny teen snarled when they saw a big bird fly into a tree. They both ducked down behind a rock, with Kwan ready to shoot it. Danny didn't want to risk the noise but they really needed anything they can get at that point. Kwan fired the gun, the shot ringing through the air, but misses, and the bird flew away.

They both growled in annoyance and disappointment as Kwan lowered the gun in defeat.

Suddenly they heard a far off scream tear through the forest.

"Shit! Was that Bucky?!" Kwan cried.

"I don't know! Come on!" Danny shouted and they ran towards the scream, but they could seem to find it. Just then they heard the scream again, and Danny and Kwan headed in that direction. They found a teacher stuck in a bear trap and two highschool students trying to get her out. Danny and Kwan recognized them almost immediately.

They were Dale, Dash Baxter, and Ms. Tetslaff.

"Jesus Christ..." Danny gasped when he saw the bear trap, causing the other two teenagers to turn around.

"Oh, shit!" Dale cried. "No. No, please don't kill us! We just want to help our teacher! We'll leave, I swear!" He begged.

"Wait Dale, Dash, it's me! Kwan!" He exclaimed as Bucky caught up with them.

"You guys okay?!" He asked the kids, freezing when he saw what was going on.

"Get it off! Get it off, goddamn it, get it off me!" Ms. Tetslaff cried in agony.

"Kwan?" Dash gasped. "It's really you."

"These guys might be the same guys that raided our camp and we barely got away from that!" Dale warned.

"What guys?" Kwan asked.

"Why the fuck is there a bear trap out HERE?!" Bucky exclaimed.

"What the hell happened?" Danny asked, hoping Dash didn't recognize him. Fate appeared on his side today, as the jock didn't give any indication that he did.

"Ms. Tetslaff said we should stay off the streets! We were trying to be careful but then this happened!" He replied as the teacher continued to sob in pain as blood gushed out of her trapped ankle.

"We've gotta help 'em," Kwan said.

"PLEASE!" Dash pleaded.

"Dash, shut up! My dad was Special Forces, I know what I'm doing!" Dale said, but the jock didn't seem to care.

"Just see if you can get her out! After that you can leave us or whatever, I don't care! Please!"

"We gotta get him out of there." Danny agreed and Bucky growled.

"Fine, but you gotta hurry!" He said as Kwan bent down to look at the trap. Due to all the blood and screaming, infected started appearing around them. As he examined the trap, Kwan suddenly gasped in horror

"Guys, this trap's been altered." He said. "There's no release latch."

"Oh, no." Dale whimpered as two infected got closer towards them.

"Shit! It's now or never, Danny!" Bucky shouted.

"Please...get me out of this!" She beseeched through her tears and pain.

"Kwan, get the boys back!" Danny said as he bent down to look at the bear trap. "Bucky, keep those things off of me!" He exclaimed as he tried to pry the trap open with the sword and Bucky started firing his gun. However, it seemed to make things worst as she screamed even louder, drawing more towards them. Danny then tried to use the sword to cut the chain several times but to no avail.

Danny growled as he thought through his options.

The only thing he could think of was to cut her leg off. Before he could do anything, however, Bucky grabbed his shoulders and hoisted the teen back to his feet, stopping him from free the large gym teacher.

"Come on! We gotta go! Now!" He shouted into his face. Danny took a look around and saw that there were over two dozen infected now and he could see a couple of ghosts approaching from the distance.

"No, no, don't leave me!" She begged.

"I-I'm sorry!" Danny said and they made to leave.

"No! We can't leave Ms. Tetslaff like that! Give me the gun!" Dale shouted and grabbed for Bucky's gun. As the two of them grappled for the gun, Bucky suddenly, accidentally, gutshot the dark-haired teen. Dale gagged as he grabbed his bleeding stomach.

"Shit! What happened?!" Danny cried in shock.

"He went for the gun!" Dash exclaimed as the infected go closer.

"Grab him and keep moving!" Danny shouted and Kwan picked Dale up over his shoulders and followed everyone. As they all ran for, Ms. Tetslaff sat up on her elbows and screamed when she saw the ghosts and infected surrounding her.

"You can't leave me like this! Please get me out!" She howled but it was no use, they were too far away to hear her. The large gym teacher wailed in despair as the monsters surrounded and devoured her...

* * *

As they ran through the forest back to the motor inn, Danny lagged a few feet behind the others to ensure nothing was following them back to camp. While running, over the sound of leaves crushing, his heavy breathing, and his heart hammering in his chest, Danny could swear he heard the gym teacher screaming and heavy footsteps following close behind them.

Taking a look over his shoulder and cried out when he saw an infected man practically breathing down his neck.

Suddenly Danny tripped on a rock and fell into the fallen leaves, dropping his sword. The others had run too far away to notice or help him. Danny quickly turned around but it was too late. He screamed as the zombie suddenly lunged before him. At the very last second, however, Danny gasped as two white rings suddenly engulfed his body, and a blast of green energy shot out of his hands, destroying the infected in a matter of seconds.

Unfortunately, the blast had destroyed a couple of trees and set fire to a few others.

Thankfully it was too bad and the trees were too wet to probably burn. The rest of the infected and the few ghosts who had been chasing them saw this and quickly escaped. For a few seconds, Danny thought he could hear a woman shouting things from the forest but dismissed it as Ms. Tetslaff's final cries. Danny sat there in utter shock, staring at his smoking hand.

Regaining his senses, Danny quickly crawled to a nearby puddle to check himself.

What he saw terrified him. He had changed. His once black and white hair had become completely snow-white, his icy blue eyes had become a glowing toxic green, not unlike the infected, and his skin changed from light to tanned. There was a faint light aura surrounding him. Instead of his usual tattered clothes, he was wearing a black hazmat jumpsuit with white boots, collar, belt, and forearm-length gloves.

"No... not now... Please not now..." He muttered hopefully as he stared at his reflection.

He closed his luminous green eyes and took several deep breaths to calm his racing heart. The rings of light quicky returned and transformed back into Danny Fenton. The teen immediately checked himself over to make sure he was completely back to normal. One he was certain, Danny sprang back to his feet, grabbed his sword, and bolted back to camp...


	11. Terrifying Truths

Back at the motor inn, everything was relatively peaceful. Vicky, Mr. Dinkleberg, and SpongeBob were fortifying the fence. Timmy, AJ, Jimmy, and Chester were playing soccer, using barrels as the goalposts. Valerie was sat in a chair on the RV, keeping watch. Tootie was lying down and drawing on a board on the floor, and Nicky and Mrs. Dinkleberg knelt next to her. Valerie frowned when she heard the leaves rustling. She quickly picked up her gun and pointed it at the forest, ready to kill any threat to step onto the sidewalk.

Suddenly, an explosion rattled the areas and everyone froze.

Valerie frowned in confusion when she saw what looked like greenish smoke floating through the trees, indicating a ghost attack, but it was way stronger than any she had ever seen before and that scared her. After a few tense seconds, Valerie whistled, and everyone stopped what they were doing to hide. Bucky, Kwan, Dash, and Dale suddenly burst out of the forest. Danny followed them out a few seconds later.

"Get the gates open! We've got wounded!" Danny shouted as they ran for the gates.

"Shit, what the hell are they doing?" Valerie angrily hissed as she lowered her gun. The rest of the motel group quickly ran to open the gates as Danny and the others approached. Danny pushed open one of the dumpsters blocking the gate and the hunting group entered. Everyone began talking at the same time, speaking over each other, trying to understand what was going one and who the new people were.

"What happened?!" Ms. Dinkleberg asked

"Where should I put him?" Kwan wondered, Dale still slung over his shoulders.

"Who the HELL are these people?!" Vicky screeched.

"Who's that?" AJ asked.

"What's going on?" Mr. Dinkleberg asked

"I don't have time to explain!" Danny exclaimed, interrupting everyone.

"Get him into the truck, I'll see what I can do, okay?" SpongeBob said and Kwan and Dash put Dale into the back of a pickup truck.

"Can you fix him?" Nicky asked.

"I...I don't know!" He admitted as he attended to the boy's injury.

"Danny! Danny!" Valerie shouted as she approached them. "What the hell?! You can't just be bringing new people here! What are you thinking?!"

"Hey, you wanna calm down for a fucking minute?!" Bucky snarled at her.

"No, I don't! I want to know why you thought bringing more mouths to feed was a good idea?!"

"We're the ones that shot him," Danny explained, guilt evident in his voice.

"Then you should have done the right thing and finished him off." Vicky huffed.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Bucky shouted.

"Well, hang on! We haven't even talked to these people yet! Maybe they CAN be helpful!" Mr. Dinkleberg argued.

"Come on, Val," Kwan said. "These are people! People trying to survive, just like us; we've gotta stick together to survive!"

"The only reason we're still here is that this place had food, enough for ALL of us, but that food is almost gone, we've got maybe a week's worth left, and I don't suppose these guys are carrying any groceries!" She glared as Tootie tugged on Dash's sleeve.

"Come over here and see what I drew." She smiled.

"What?" The jock frowned in utter confusion as the little girl took his hand and led him away from the fighting.

"You know, you like to think you're the leader of this little group, but we can make our own goddamn decisions!" Bucky snarled. "This isn't your own personal dictatorship!"

"You're being dramatic!" Mr. Dinkleberg said to his friend. "Everything always turns into a power struggle between you two, I'm sorry but I'm not gonna be a part of that anymore." He said and he and his wife walked away.

"Hey, I didn't ask to lead this group!" Valerie argued. "Everyone was happy to have me distributing the food when there was enough to go around, but now that it's running out, suddenly I'm a goddamn Nazi!"

"It doesn't matter who's in charge!" Danny exclaimed before anyone could say anything else. "Those people are here now, I guess we just have to decide what happens next."

"No, kid, it DOES matter!" Bucky insisted. "ONE person can't be in charge of EVERYTHING! You know, it might feel safe for you to sit on the fence, but sooner or later you're gonna have to decide whose side you're on." He snarled and he and Chester walked away.

"I don't see any of you stepping up to make the hard decisions!" Valerie exclaimed in rage and frustration and angrily walked away. After she left, the others soon dispersed as well. Danny quickly went after the dark-skinned girl to make sure she was ok. "Look, I can't do this right now." She sighed in defeat. "You understand what I'm dealing with, please do me a favor, I need you to handle the rations today." She asked and went over to the backpack next to the RV.

She took out an apple, beef jerky, and two packages of crackers and held them out to Danny.

"That's all you're giving out?" He asked.

"If we're gonna make what's left last the week, then this is all we can spare today." She admitted sadly. "It's not gonna be enough for everyone, but... Just do what you think is right." She said and handed the food to the teen before walking away.

Danny frowned as he stared at the four food items as everyone looked at him, knowing that whether they get to eat or not was up to him now. The teen looked around, trying to make up his mind on who to feed. As his eyes wandered around he looked at the dumpsters they were using to block the gates, remembering how they had dug through those for food. Noticing SpongeBob seemed to be struggling in treating Dale, Danny walked up to him.

"Is he gonna be okay?" The teen asked.

"I don't know." He admitted. "Can you give me a hand real quick?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

"Just apply some pressure here while I try to close this up." He explained and Danny applied pressure to the wound. "You know, I thought I was starting to get used to this...sewing up people's injuries..." SpongeBob muttered before giving Danny a disapproving glare. "What were you thinking bringing him here? Even if he lives, we aren't going to be able to take care of them."

"I did the right thing." Danny defended.

"Yeah... I know you did; the right thing is just scary sometimes." He sighed. "Well, you've done all you can, Danny, thanks for the help." He smiled softly. "Go ahead and check in on the others, I need a little space here, anyway." He said and Danny walked behind the RV. There he saw that the kids were drawing pictures on pieces of paper placed on top of the cardboard. Tootie drew a cat and Timmy drew what appeared to be a house and Jimmy drew what appeared to be random scribbles, Timmy's walkie-talkie was nearby.

The Dinklebergs were sat some chairs, keeping an eye on them, and Dash sat on the ground.

When they saw him, Jimmy and Timmy ran to their teenage guardian.

"How ya doing, guys?" He smiled but noticed Timmy's hat was missing. "Where's your hat?"

"I don't know, can you help me find it?" The buck-toothed child asked.

"Sure, when did you lose it?"

"I had it a couple of days ago."

"I promise, if I find it, I'll let you know."

"Thank you."

"Why don't you go back to playing with the others for a while?" The teen smiled and the boys nodded before running off. Once they were gone, Danny looked up and saw Valerie glaring at him from her lookout spot on top of the RV. Danny frowned and climbed up to join her. "We should really talk about you, Vicky and Bucky." He said.

"What about us?" She glared.

"The arguing, it's getting pretty out of hand." He explained.

"Look, I'm working my ASS off to make sure we have a good setup here and Vicky and Bucky just don't appreciate that." She argued. "All we need is food."

"But there is no food." He pointed out. "You know that better than anyone."

"Well, we'll just have to find some."

"Maybe we should think about leaving the motel."

"Oh God, not you too." She groaned. "Look, I know Bucky wants to leave, I think that's why he's so eager to get the RV working, but this is a good spot." She explained. "We're protected, we're close to Amity Park, we have a routine now and it's working."

"For now." He muttered as he climbed back down to check on the others. He looked around and saw Dash staring at the floor, looking lost. Danny remembered who the jock tormented him for most of his school years before it didn't seem he recognized him. Danny quickly shook those thoughts out of his head, it didn't matter what Dash did to him in the past, all that matters was the now.

"Hey, is my friend gonna make it?" Dash suddenly asked him, shocking him out of his thoughts.

"I don't know, but SpongeBob will do his best, I promise." He smiled.

"I can't believe we just left Ms. Tetslaff there..." He muttered.

"I tried, I really did." He replied sadly. She might not have been the nicest teacher, but no one deserved to die like that. "I just...we ran out of time; there was nothing else we could do."

"So, how'd you guys escape into woods? Our groups gonna want to know."

"Ms. Tetslaff was the gym teacher, we were training for the playoffs, when...when everything happened."

"How are you holding up with everything?"

"Uh, well, I, uh... I keep wondering if I could have done something to help, you know? Some kind of...I don't know, SOMETHING!" Dash exclaimed.

"You'll be prepared next time," Danny promised.

"Next time?" He asked fearfully, his eyes going back to the ground. Thinking he wanted to be left alone, Danny walked over to the kids, planning on giving them something to eat.

"Here, guys, you need something to eat." He smiled as he gave Jimmy and Timmy two halves of the apple, Tootie the piece of jerky, and AJ and Chester the two packers of crackers and cheese. Danny smiled and saw the Dinklebergs staring at him. "Sorry I ran out before I could give you any food," He sadly explained to the couples.

"Hey, don't feel bad." Mr. Dinkleberg chuckled.

"I'd almost rather starve than the children." His wife reassured. "Besides, you've done plenty for us already." She smiled, causing the teen to blush slightly before he went to check on Kwan.

"What should we do about Dash and Dale?" Danny asked the Asian teen.

"If it were up to me, I'd let them stay for a while, their two of my best friend's and I know they can be an asset." He explained. "But that's up to the others, and with the lack of food, I don't want to get on anyone's bad side." He sighed. Danny didn't know what to say to that so he simply walked away to see what Bucky was up to, hoping the man hadn't seen his... incident. He sat with the man on a couch behind the RV.

"Word's gettin' out that you wanna leave the motor inn," Danny said as they looked out to the forest.

"That ain't no secret, Danny, it's probably our best bet." Bucky snapped as he stood up and turned to the teen. "Look, you've been good to me and my boy, you saved Chester from those monsters, and ya stood up to Vicky at the drugstore." He explained. "I won't forget that you and your boys are welcome to come with us when we get to Bikini Bottom."

"The coast does sound like a smart idea." Danny nodded before looking at the kids. "But we have a better chance of surviving as a group."

"Our BEST chance of surviving is to get away from the mainland!" He glared. "My mind is already made up, first chance I get I'm taking my son and we're getting out of here." He insisted as he sat back down.

"The woman in the beartrap." Danny suddenly said. "You think we gave up too early? I think if I had just another minute or two I could have saved her."

"You saw her, her leg was completely mangled," Bucky reassured. "Even if you got her out, what then? I had my family in mind, and you gotta think of Jimmy and Timmy; we gotta stay alive for them."

"Valerie has a point about these new people being extra mouths to feed."

"I know, but...maybe the problem isn't that there isn't any food, there just isn't any HERE!" The former baseball player exclaimed. "We've gotta think about moving on; you must have seen that explosion, something even more dangerous is on its way here and I don't plan to be here when it comes." He growled, glaring at the forest as Danny's stomach dropped.

"Y-Yeah I hear you." He chuckled nervously before going off to check on the last of their group.

"How's it going, Danny? From up here, it looks like you're playing favorites." Val suddenly called from on top of the RV, but Danny paid her no mind as he approached Vicky, Kwan, and Nicky working on the fence.

"Will you hold the damn boards steady?!" Vicky growled at her shaking mother.

"I'm trying honey, I-I didn't realize I was getting this weak already." She muttered in fear.

"What do you want? A handout?!" She shouted. "I got 60 cents in my pocket if you'll shut up and quit being such a pansy!"

"Hey, Danny." Kwan smiled as the teen approached. "You know it was an accident, right? I didn't mean to shoot him." He said.

"I know." He promised the jock. "It was crazy back there, he acted stupidly." He glared at the truck where SpongeBob was still treating Dale. "Val's still pretty pissed at us."

"Well...what did she want us to do, just leave a couple of teenagers to the monsters? I think she's forgotten we all used to be friends in high school, her, me, Dash and Dale."

"That's exactly what you should have done, friends or no friends." Vicky snorted.

"There are too many people hanging around here as it is," Nicky stated nervously, worried she would be shouted at again.

"Try not to make too much noise." Kwan glared as Vicky started hammering against the wall, causing a clanking sound.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm not stupid." She snapped.

"Come on, Vicky what is it between you two?" Kwan asked in annoyance. "Why do you have a personal grudge against Danny?"

"He knows why." She growled and went back to hammering the wall. Danny glared at the back of her head before, he approached Valerie to tell her he had distributed all the food.

"Well, that's it." He sighed.

"Not such an easy job, is it?" She asked, sympathy evident in her voice.

"Never said it was." He replied. "I don't envy you, I don't know how you have the strength to do this every day."

"I don't have a choice." She sighed. After realizing that there was no food left for today, Bucky stood up and walked over to Danny.

"Bucky, I know I ran out of food before-"

"Hey, it was a tough choice, but you took care of the kids, that's what a real man does." The man smiled at him in reassurance. "I'm serious about that offer to come with us, you've more than earned a ride on the RV with me and Chester." He offered until he saw Nicky, Kwan, and Vicky come towards them. " Still, I guess some people aren't gonna be happy with your choices."

"You're out?!" Vicky howled. "What happened to MY food?!"

"There's none left." Danny glared, crossing his arms.

"You keep treating people like this and your days in this group are numbered!" The tall girl warned.

"You're one to talk, bitch." Bucky huffed.

"Yeah, well, I don't see you working on that wall!" She snarled as she walked away in a rage and Bucky returned to his seat.

"Danny! Kwan! Come here, please." SpongeBob suddenly called and the teens walked over to him. As they walked over to the blonde man, they both saw his defeated expression and the dark blood painting the back of the truck.

"He didn't make it, did he?" Danny asked sadly.

"He lost too much blood," SpongeBob admitted grievously.

"Goddamn it! I'm getting sick of this fucking shit!" Kwan exclaimed as he threw something against the RV and stormed off.

"That kid you brought here Danny..." SpongeBob started. "I tried, but he was never going to survive that gunshot."

"Well, at least he's not our problem anymore." He muttered morbidly.

"What about the other kid?" He asked, looking as Kwan told Dash that Dale didn't survive the gunshot; the blonde jock lowered his head and Danny swore that he saw tears rolling down his cheeks. Danny was about to say something when all of a sudden an infected Dale shot up from behind SpongeBob and grabbed his shoulder and face. He screamed and Danny rushed over and pushed the zombie away from the man. The teen turned around to grab his sword.

The infected Dale grabbed onto him and pulled him into the truck bed.

Danny growled and smashed its head against the sides several times. He raised the sword, preparing to strike. He shoved the monster away, and its head hit the back window shield. It slumped down just as Danny swung the sword down, missing and completely shattering the window. Danny tried to pull on the sword to free but it was stuck. The infected continued crawled toward Danny. The black and white-haired teen quickly placed his foot on its chest, trying to push it away from him.

SpongeBob suddenly smashed the board on the infected Dale's head as Danny kicked it away.

The skinny teenager finally managed to pull his sword free as he crawled backward, falling over the edge of the truck bed and onto the ground. The infected jumped onto him, and he embedded his blade in between its eyes. The monster went limp before turning into a green puddle of ectoplasm. SpongeBob crouched down next to him as the others ran over.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, thanks." The teen panted as he got us.

"Why'd you bring him here in the first place, asshole?!" Vicky snarled

"Honey! Please calm down." Nicky pleaded, only to jump away as her oldest daughter snarled at her like a wild animal, before returning her glare to Danny. The two had an intense glaring match before Vicky walked away, her mother and sister following closely behind her. Bucky turned to a confused Dash and saw red as he grabbed the blonde jock by the collar.

"Why didn't you tell us he was bitten?!" The man shouted. "He was bitten and you didn't say a goddamn word!"

"But he wasn't bitten! I swear!" Dash cried as he trembled in Bucky's iron grip.

"Well, your 'not-bitten; friend here came back to life and tried to kill our friend!"

"What?!" Dash gasped, before freezing in realization. "Wait, you all don't know?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Bucky as he slowly lowered the teen back to the ground and everyone in the group moved closer to Dash to listen to his explanation, including the children.

"It's not just the bite that does it! You come back no matter how you die." He explained. "If you don't destroy the brain or the heart, that's just what happens, it's gonna happen to ALL of us eventually."

"We're all infected?" Danny asked in horror.

"I-I guess so, I don't know..." He admitted. "All I know is that I've seen people turn who I KNOW were never bitten." He insisted. "When I first saw it happen, we were all hiding out in a gym and everybody thought we were finally safe, but one of the girls, Mia O'Shaughnessey, I think, I guess she couldn't take it, she took some kind of pills, a lot of them; someone went into the girls' room the next morning, and... God..." He whimpered as he went pale.

Suddenly the bells on the group's alarm system began ringing...


	12. Friend Or Foe?

As the bells on their alarm system began ringing loudly as a man tripped over the string outside the motel with another man next to him. The motel survivors crouched down behind the fence for cover. Valerie quickly stood up, pointing her gun at two men outside the fence and they put their hands up with fearful expressions. Danny looked over and saw that one of them holding a gas can. One was a short and portly man, with large hands, and short legs.

He had spikey, crimson red hair and pale green eyes.

He wore a light blue shirt and purple pants with a black belt. The other man had light turquoise dyed hair in a buzz cut. He had a large forehead, similar to Jimmy's, a skinny body, a big droopy nose, a wide mouth, and amber eyes. He wore a brown polo shirt with matching pants and black boots.

"Back off!" The dark-skinned girl warned.

"Whoa, lady, relax!" The man with red hair quickly exclaimed as they both raised their hands in surrender. "Me and my employee, we...we just wanna know if you can help us out."

"I said back off!" She shouted again.

"Wait, I know these guys." SpongeBob suddenly whispered. "That's my boss Mr. Krabs and friend Squidward!" He gasped.

"SpongeBob?" The man, Mr. Krabs, said, finally noticing the blonde man, but Valerie quickly cocked her gun, preventing them from approaching. Danny thought for a moment before looking at Valerie.

"Val, lower the gun." He said and she reluctantly obeyed. "We don't want any trouble!" He called to the men.

"Of course, neither do we." Mr. Krabs said as he slowly lowered his hands. "I'm Mr. Eugene Krabs and this here's my employee Squidward Tentacles; we're just out looking for gasoline." He explained as he examined the group and their camp. "Looks like you people have got this motel locked down, which is fine, but if you could spare any gas we'd be much obliged."

"Are you armed?" Bucky asked.

"Yeah, for protection, those things could be anywhere," Squidward replied as they slowly pulled out their guns and carefully put them on the ground.

"What do you need gas for?" Valerie asked as she looked at the empty gas can.

"Our place is protected by an electric fence," Squidward replied. "The generators provide electricity and our generators run on gas."

"Look, we've been hiding in a dairy farm with my daughter Pearl a few miles up the road." Mr. Krabs explained. "If you all be willing to lower your guns, we can talk about some kinda trade." He said, piquing the group's interest. "How you all doing on food? We got plenty at the dairy." He kindly offered. After a few moments thinking it over, Valerie quickly turned to Danny.

"Danny, why don't you and SpongeBob go and check the place out and see if it's legit?"

"I'll go too, improve the numbers, in case we run into anything." SpongeBob beamed. "Plus, it'll be nice to catch up with my old friends."

"You've got a deal." Danny smiled. "We'll bring SOME gas to your dairy, in exchange, you give us some food to bring back; we'll see how it goes from there." He explained.

"Sounds fair, a couple of gallons should power one of our generators for a while." Mr. Krabs smiled...

* * *

As they walked through the forest, Mr. Krabs, Squidward, Kwan, SpongeBob, and Dash were talking, with Danny, Valerie, and Jimmy following a little ways behind them, making sure no infected or ghosts snuck up behind them.

"So, this dairy...you guys really have food?" Kwan asked.

"Sure do." Mr. Krabs grinned. "After we escaped Bikini Bottom we made it up here until we ran outta gas; We found the farm but seemed like the owners were long gone and had lost most of the cattle, but we still found lots of milk, butter, and cheese stocked up in the house and with the vegetables, the original owners had grown, we got plenty of food."

"You sure you're ok Jimmy?" Danny asked the boy.

"Sure, I'd like to look at that electric fence they talked about." The boy genius smiled. "It might give me some ideas for something I can rig up at the motor inn."

"Can an electric fence really stop the infected?" Kwan asked the child.

"As long as the infected aren't completely dehydrated, and the fence has enough juice, yeah, seems plausible, the electricity basically cooks you from the inside out; it wouldn't really work for ghosts as they could just fly over it," Jimmy explained with a concerned frown. "But if an infected came into contact with the fence, it'll eventually cook its brain and heart, probably takes a while, though...and that can't be a good smell."

"Doubt it." Danny chuckled.

"It's nice to get away from that motel for a while." Kwan sighed in relief. "All the fights between Vicky, Valerie, and Bucky are starting to get really ridiculous, no offense." He quickly said to Valerie, who burned a glare into the back of his head.

"Val's way of running things is smart." Danny defended. "It's not easy, but it's keeping us alive." He added and Valerie smiled.

"Personally, I'd be happier if you started to take charge more." Kwan smiled at Danny.

"You think they'd want me for a leader?" He asked in disbelief.

"Sure, everybody looks up to you." Jimmy smiled as he walked further up to catch up with the others, leaving Danny and Valerie alone.

"Well...not everyone thinks I'm so trustworthy." The teen muttered, but she heard it.

"Because of your past?" Valerie asked and he nodded. "Does anyone else know? Because I haven't told anyone."

"Vicky knows." He admitted. "I don't know how she found out."

"Great, that can't be easy." Valerie sighed. "You've gotta let go of that fear, the Danny I know is a good man." She reassured with a smile.

"Timmy and Jimmy also know." He said as he watched the boy talk happily with the jocks about some kind of science, greatly confusing them. "They were there when we were talking in the drugstore and asked me about it; I couldn't lie to them."

"What exactly DID happen with your family?" Valerie finally asked, but Danny remained silent. "Well, I'm here whenever you wanna talk."

"Sometimes I wonder if I should talk to the group about it."

"You don't have to, whatever happened before things went to hell doesn't matter anymore." She said sternly.

"Not sure everyone would see it that way."

"Maybe you're right." She sighed before placing a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, these past few months we've some pretty messed up shit, I've seen you protect us a hundred times, remember, you are not a bad man."

"I really appreciate that." He smiled as they caught up with the group ahead of them.

"...I mean, thank god Danny showed up when he did!" They heard SpongeBob exclaimed.

"Yeah, why don't you tell us a little more about yourself, Danny?" Mr. Krabs grinned. "Where are ya from?"

"The motor inn is my home now, I guess." He shrugged.

"That place has seen better days, huh?" Squidward asked, not really turning to them.

"We've actually made it pretty secure," Valerie stated, though it vaguely sounded like a threat.

"I like that alarm system you made, that's pretty smart," Dash said with a weak smile.

"Y'all seem pretty settled in at that motor inn, who's running things over there?" Mr. Krabs asked.

"We work as a group, all of us looking out for each other." Danny quickly said, trying to remain neutral.

"I hear that! There are so many dumbasses out there fighting each other these days, it's just stupid." The short man chuckled. "How many people ya got over there anyway?"

"Enough to defend ourselves," Valerie warned again as Danny gave her a small glare.

"Well, that's good! It's getting dangerous out there, well, you guys know." The red-haired man sadly pointed out. "Well, we'd love to get ya ALL out to the dairy; as I said, we got plenty of food, and quite frankly, we could always use an extra helping hand."

"We'll have to talk it over when we get back," Danny explained.

Suddenly the group heard loud shouting for up ahead. They quickly crouched down and moved forward to see the argument with Danny, Valerie, Kwan, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward drew their weapons. They looked and saw to adult men standing in a clearing, arguing loudly.

"You think you're gonna cut me outta this?!" The first man shouted.

"No one is trying to cut you outta anything!" The other man tried to reason.

"You and Gary are always pulling this shit! Don't think I haven't noticed it!"

"Fuckin' bandits." Squidward hissed.

"Who?" SpongeBob asked nervously.

"Fucking assholes are who they are." Mr. Krabs growled.

"Those look like the people who raided my camp," Dash said.

"Calm down, your paranoia is pissing everyone off!" The second bandit exclaimed.

"Fuck you! You knew we were hungry! And you guys were keeping it all to yourselves!" The first bandit screeched.

"What should we do?" Kwan asked, feeling the tension grow.

"There's only two of them," Valerie suggested.

"Oh, no, there's a lot more," Squidward warned.

"Don't worry, Squidward and I got ya covered if something happens, but let's just wait this out and hope they move on." Mr. Krabs suggested.

"Yeah, and you know what, we ate it all! What are you gonna fucking do about it?!" The second bandit laughed bitterly as he got into his fellow bandit's face

"FUCK YOU!" The first bandit screamed as kicked the other bandit and then shot him in the head. Dash gasped as Danny quickly covered Jimmy's eyes in an attempt to protect him. "FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" The surviving bandit howled as he continued to shoot the dead body a few more times. After emptying all his bullets into the man, the bandit spat on his corpse before walking away. Once they were sure the coast was clear, everyone got up and walked away as fast as they could...


	13. Fence Fiasco

After a few more minutes of walking through the forest, they had finally arrived at the farm. There was a large red barn with a tall silo, many different crops growing around the area, and a large white house resting on top of a hill, overlooking the whole farm. The large area of farmland was surrounded by an electric fence that was humming with power.

"Here it is, you all can see how we've kept this place so safe." Mr. Krabs smiled, gesturing to the fence as Jimmy and AJ knelt down and inspected the fence before Danny made them move on, not wanting the boys to get hurt.

"The fence keeps them out?" SpongeBob asked, noticing there were no infected insight

"You bet, they fry like bugs in a zapper." Mr. Krabs laughed. "We're pushing 4,000 volts through that thing, with generators and amps."

"Oh, wow, you guys must know a thing or two about running wire." AJ smiled, very impressed.

"No, the original owners set the fence up, we found some of their old farm hand hiding in the house but they're all gone now." Squidward shrugged.

"What happened to the original owners? And what do you mean the farmhands are gone?" Danny frowned and the two men flinched slightly.

"We're not sure," Mr. Krabs admitted. "We think either the bandits, ghosts, or infected got them out in the forest."

"What do you do about the ghosts, 'cause I don't think that fence stops them, does it?" Kwan asked.

"True it doesn't stop them, but the farmhands showed us some kind of secret basement those spooks couldn't find; seems those floating bastards are too stupid to check underground if they ain't got a visible door leading them down there." He explained smugly. "I think they scouted this place ages ago and now they just seem to pass right by us."

"Ever have any accidents?" Danny asked, eyeing the generator nervously as Jimmy and AJ examined it, ready to pull the boys away at the first sign of danger.

"No, but it's safer here than out there," Squidward replied.

"I'm sorry, it's just that we've got kids in our group, doesn't seem safe to have them near a lethal fence," Danny explained.

"Oh, don't worry about that." Mr. Krabs chuckled. "We got plenty to keep 'em entertained."

"Oh, wow!" Jimmy gleefully exclaimed. "You've got enough electricity to run the whole place!"

"This place looks untouched! You'd never know the rest of the world is in ruins." Valerie smiled as her eyes wandered around the peaceful farm.

"It's worth protecting, hence all the juice," Squidward replied, lifting up the gas can when the door to the farmhouse suddenly burst open and a teenage girl around Danny's age stepped outside and joyfully walked towards them with a picnic basket in her hand. Her skin was so pale, so gray that Danny almost mistook her for an infected. She was very big and tall compared to the other girls her age. She had blonde hair that she had tied in a ponytail with a pink scrunchie and wore slight smudged, bright red lipstick.

She had eyes and thick black eyelashes.

She was wearing a pink cheerleader dress with a purple skirt and the letter 'P' stitched on the front. She also sported a pair of white go-go boots.

"I thought I saw you with company comin' down the drive!" She cheered.

"Guys, this is my baby girl, Pearl." Mr. Krabs smiled warmly.

"Welcome!" Pearl smiled as she hugged the newcomers.

"Sweety, this here's Danny." Her father said as he placed a strong hand on the boy's shoulder, making him slightly. "He and these people have been livin' down at the old motel down the road with a few friends."

"That place is pretty vulnerable, have you got someone with survival experience to lead your group?" She asked, concern clear in her voice.

"We've got things under control over there." He reassured her as he shook the man's hand off of him.

"Well, I hope you know what you're doing, that place isn't safe like it is here." She smiled. Now that you're all are here, we'll make sure you're as safe and comfortable as possible."

"Thanks for having us, we brought some gasoline on good faith," Valerie said.

"Yeah and we're awful hungry." Kwan suddenly said, gaining a few disapproving glares from the others.

"Then these are for you, baked fresh this morning." Pearl smiled as she raised the basket, which was filled with bread and biscuits.

"Holy shit!" Dash gasped.

"Amazing!" Valerie said in shock, having not seen freshly baked goods in months.

"Can't get stuff like that anymore, not without a cow for milk and butter, that's for sure." Squidward huffed, crossing his arms.

"Hopefully the cow will make it through this bout of whatever she's got and be with us for a good long while." Pearl sighed sadly.

"Your cow is sick?"

"We have many talented people back at our camp, one of them could help you, maybe our whole GROUP could come...for the day..." Kwan suggested, looking down after the others turned their disapproving glares to him.

"Well, how about this, y'all go get your friends and I'll prepare some dinner, a big feast for all you hungry souls." Mr. Krabs offered. "It'll be nice to have some folks to help out around here again, Pearl, SpongeBob, why don't you two come and help me out in the kitchen?" The short man smiled and led them both up to the farmhouse.

"Why don't I head back with the food and round up everyone for the trip back here?" Valerie proposed.

"You might wanna take someone with you, remember, those roads can be dangerous," Danny said.

"I can handle myself."

"Why don't you go ahead and take Dash along anyway?" Kwan asked, surprising the fellow jock.

"Fine, take care of yourself, Danny, I'll see ya in a while." She smiled as she picked up the basket and left with Dash.

"Why don't you guys take a look around? Once ya get settled in, I could use some help securin' the perimeter." Squidward said.

"Is there a problem?" Danny frowned.

"Sometimes the infected get tangled up in the fence before they fry and end up knocking over a post." He explained. "It'd be a BIG help if you could walk the perimeter, you can learn something about our fence." He said, perking Jimmy's interests. "I'm gonna go top of the generators before they run dry, come get me when you're ready." He shrugged and walked away.

"This place is INCREDIBLE!" Jimmy exclaimed happily.

"It's got food! And that fence...oh, man, that fence! It's pretty impressive, considering what these people have had to work with." AJ added.

"If we play our cards right, this might turn out to be a place we can stay." Kwan nodded. "So how do you want to play this?" He asked Danny.

"Before we can think about bringing our whole group here to stay, we need to figure out if this place is as safe as they're telling us." The teen said firmly.

"Right, obviously, THEY think it's safe, but is it safe enough for the kids?" Kwan wondered. "I noticed a broken swing over there, not really a big deal, but maybe there are other things not working that we just can't see yet."

"And checking the fence perimeter sounds like a decent way to get a good look at their defenses," Danny smirked.

"Alright, I'll keep my eyes open for anything weird and you find out what you can from Squidward," Kwan said. Danny nodded and started looking around the farm. He looked up at the house and wondered how much food they had in there. Hopefully, they would find out soon. He looked at the tree near the gate and noticed the broken swing dangling from one of its branches. Too bad it was broken. Danny would bet the kids would have loved something like this to play on.

It'd be a nice change from a soccer ball and some chalk and crayons.

Danny looked forward to the day when kids could just be kids once again. Banishing those depressing thoughts from his mind, Danny quickly walked up to the house to try and investigate inside. He knocked on the door and Mr. Krabs answered.

"Well, hi there, Danny my boy!" He smiled. "What can I do for ya?"

"Can I help you with anything around the house?"

"I think we've got things pretty well squared away in the kitchen, but feel free to check with Squidward, he's got a lot of weight on his shoulders these days so I'm sure he'd love any help he can get."

"Alright, by the way, when will dinner be ready?"

"It'll be a while still, but it'll be worth it, trust me!"

"How has your family been holding up since...you know?"

"My daughter has been my saving grace, I also owe Squidward our lives, after the attacks started happening I doubt we would have made it out of Bikini Bottom in one piece, but don't tell him I said that, don't want his head gettin' any bigger!" Mr. Krabs chuckled. "I should check on SpongeBob and Pearl, you go and see if Squidward needs anything." He said before suddenly slamming the door in Danny's face. The teen was taken aback by this, but shook it off and went to check on the others.

He walked back down the hill and to Squidward, who was crouching in front of the generator.

Upon noticing the teen approaching him, the man glared as he stood him to speak to him.

"Listen, I'm glad you guys decided to help us out and I noticed back at the motel that you folks are pretty well-armed."

"Yeah, if anyone tries to fuck with us, they'll regret it!" He glared.

"Well, protecting your people is important, but in my experience, having that many guns around are when people get dangerous." He explained.

"We can't be the first people you've invited up to the dairy."

"Well, no." He admitted. "We've made similar deals with other people, trading for gas and food, but ultimately they moved on, looking for the people they lost contact with, waste of time if you asked him. Danny was about to say something when he saw Kwan looking at him expectedly.

"I'll be back in a second." He said and headed over to his friend, trying to ignore to glares Squidward was giving him.

"So, what have you found out? Is this looking like a good place to stay?" Kwan asked, trying not to meet Squidward's gaze.

"Not much, but I know that the fence is no joke, at least around the house," Danny explained.

"I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of it," Jimmy added eagerly.

"Just stay close guys," Danny warned, looking around uneasily as a cold chill ran down his spine. "I have a bad feeling about this place."...

* * *

After telling Squidward that they were ready to fix the perimeter, Danny, Kwan, and the boys walked along the northwest part of the fence, which was the only thing between the group and the dark, seemingly endless forest. Danny frowned as his eyes wandered to the shadowy forest full of bandits, the fence that hummed with enough electricity to fry them, and the farmhouse looking down at them, not sure which was giving him the unpleasant chill.

"So how's the place looking?" Kwan asked as they walked. "Is it safe enough for us to stay...if we can?"

"Yeah, it's pretty amazing what they've done with this dairy." He admitted. "But let's see what it takes to secure this fence before drawing any conclusions."

"I can't wait until everyone's out here." AJ smiled at Jimmy.

"Everyone besides Vicky..." Kwan muttered.

"She probably wouldn't be such a pain in the ass if you weren't telling her we were talking behind her back all the time." Danny counted.

"I'm sorry, alright?" He groaned. "Maybe a good meal will chill her out a little." He added, but they both knew it probably wouldn't. Danny frown deepened at that thought. He knew Valerie and Bucky were arguing more lately, but it was Vicky who really kicked off when things didn't go in her favor, like a spoilt kid. He didn't know where she got it from as her mother and sister seemed really sweet and timid. Her parents must have been too afraid of Vicky to set her right.

Danny sighed when he thought about Nicky.

If things got any worse or the fighting continued he was worried she would have another attack like back at the drugstore. That would be a huge problem as they had run out of pills. If she didn't have another attack as bad what happened at the drugstore, Danny was almost certain she wouldn't survive it. The last thing he wanted was for Vicky and Tootie to lose their mother, it would be too much for them. That's also the reason why he continued to let Jimmy and Timmy have hope that their parents were alright as it seemed that that was all that kept them going before he found them.

All of a sudden Jimmy and AJ started gagging in disgust and Danny, thinking the worst, pulled out his sword.

He lowered it however when he saw they were just reacting to an infected stuck in the fence with an arrow in its neck, still twitching. It had burns all over its body as green ectoplasm oozed from its eyes and mouth like vomit. The smell was almost unbearable. As Danny got closer, a crow suddenly flew down and took a chunk of flesh from the monster before flying off, causing drops of the green goo to fall onto Danny's shirt. This caused AJ to nearly empty his almost-empty stomach onto the floor, but he managed to stop himself.

Danny didn't give the goo a second glance as he walked closer and nudged the infected's shin with his foot, but the creature hardly moved.

"It's gotta be dead."

"Can't be, it's not turned into goo, I think it's just paralyzed or something," Danny replied, not taking his eyes off the monster.

"Electrical shock can result in neurological complications, involving both peripheral and central nervous systems, which may present immediately or later on," Jimmy explained.

"It's possible this infected no longer has the functions to crawl free or even register when it's being touch, seems like no matter how powerful they are these ghosts can regenerate a human's damaged or destroyed body parts," AJ added, color returning to his face. Danny immediately thought back to when he after the crash the cab driver crawled towards him instead of standing up and chasing him. He must have been paralyzed in the crash.

"Come on, let's push it off," Kwan suddenly said before he made to move the zombie and looked to the lightbulbs on the fence posts. "If those lights are out that means the fence is off, right?" He asked nervously.

"It better be." Danny glared at the fence, but thankfully the lights were off and he couldn't hear the buzz of electricity. As he looked the infected over, he frowned when he saw the arrow in its neck. He hadn't seen any bandits with a bow and arrow and thought maybe Squidward, Mr. Krabs, or Pearl were using this guy for target practice. Danny felt bad for him. He didn't know what got it first, the arrow, or the fence. Either way, Danny hoped he was already dead.

With a sad sigh, Danny tried to push the zombie with his sword but it looked like it was stuck.

The arrow had gone through the infected's neck and into a fence post, sticking him there, so Danny pulled the arrow out of the corpse. It was absolutely disgusting. After wiping the ectoplasm off his hands he used his sword to push the zombie again and this time it fell off the fence.

"Come on, I'm sure there's still a few more." He said and they continued walking along.

"Once this fence is patched up, this place will be a fortress! God, can you imagine not having to worry about the infected anymore?" Kwan smiled.

"It's useless without gas." Danny pointed out. "We might need food, but the fence need gas too, and it only protects against the infected, not the ghosts."

"Not many drivers these days, Danny, we could scrounge up a year's worth of gas, easy; plus they have a secret bunker under the farmhouse so the ghosts can't find them." He reassured with a joyful grin but noticed the other teen's ambivalence. "So, what's your take on these guys? They seem to have this place tied down pretty well."

"SpongeBob certainly trusts them and they seem decent enough." He shrugged.

"Yeah, but I just want you to know that I've got your back if anything goes down," Kwan promised.

"Thanks." He smiled.

"There's another one," Jimmy said and pointed to another zombie caught in the fence. It was in the same state as the first infected; badly burnt, but instead of being tangled in the fence, this one was gripping the top wire tightly. Danny pushed it away with his sword, but its hands remain caught on the fence and broke off from the body before turning in to goo. This time AJ really did throw up. To be honest Danny felt like gagging too but managed to keep it down.

The smell wasn't really helping though.

After AJ had emptied what little was left in his stomach, the moved on to check the fence. As they walked along the fence Danny suddenly stopped when they all heard a low grumbling sound. After a few moments, however, they quickly realized that it was just Kwan's stomach.

"Sorry, I can't stop thinking about dinner." He blushed before glaring at Danny. "Would have been nice to get some of those rations, I get hungry too, ya know."

"Come on Kwan, I had to feed the kids first, they need all the energy they can get right now."

"Seems like a waste now." He muttered, looking at a still visibly queasy AJ.

"Just try to focus on the task." He growled.

"They knew what they were doing, teasing us with food, and then giving us chores!" Jimmy whined.

"Having a good meal will be worth it," AJ muttered weakly as he held his stomach. As the four boys approached the silo and tractor they found a section of the fence that had fallen down with an infected woman tangled in it. This one must've knocked it over trying to get through before the fence fired her. Danny and Kwan tried to push her loose, but she was too tangled.

"I think we'd get better leverage from the other side," Danny suggested.

"Good idea." Kwan nodded. "AJ, come give me a hand." He said and he and AJ jumped over the fallen fence to the other side. They crouched down and held onto one of the fenceposts as Danny and Jimmy stepped over the fence and held the other fencepost. They quickly pushed the fence back up. Just as they let go, however, the electric fence turned on. If Danny and Kwan hadn't of pulled Jimmy and AJ back in time both little boys would have been barbecue.

"Holy fuck! What just happened?!" Kwan cried as he put a shaking AJ back down.

"The fences are on!" Danny exclaimed angrily.

"Why the hell would they turn the fence on?! They know we're out here!" Kwan argued and Danny felt the rage inside him grow. Accident or not, when Danny found out who nearly killed his friends he was going to make them pay. Before any of them could do anything, however, they suddenly heard a strange whizzing sound and AJ screaming half a second later. They looked towards the small bald boy and gasped in horror at what they saw.

AJ had an arrow embedded into the back of his right shoulder...


	14. Bandit Ambush

Danny, Jimmy, and Kwan screamed in fear at the arrow that had pierced AJ's shoulder. AJ cried out in pain, grabbing his shoulder as crimson blood poured out his wound and soaked his shirt. Kwan quickly picked up the bleeding boy as more arrows started flying at them. The attackers were hiding in the forest, out of sight from the four boys. Danny started looking for an escape and saw the gate. If they could reach the gate, they could get through the fence and back to the safety of the farmhouse.

They tried to run along the fence to reach the gate, but arrows were fired in front of their path, narrowly missing them.

Danny looked over at the tractor and they made a break for it. As they took cover behind the tractor, Danny peeked over, ducking as an arrow flew at him, narrowly missing him. With the electric fence on, the gate was their only way out. Unfortunately, due to all the arrows being fired at them, that option was the best. Hopefully, someone from the farm had heard their screams and was on their way to help them.

"I told you what would happen, you son of a bitch!" A man none of them recognized suddenly shouted from the forest.

"What the fuck is going on!?" Kwan cried.

"We have to get to the gate!" Danny growled as he shielded Jimmy and AJ.

"Easier said than done!" He screamed as an arrow struck the ground, inches from his hand.

"We had an agreement! Now you're fucked!" Another man laughed maniacally.

"Who the fuck is that?!"

"No idea!" Danny replied. "It might be those bandits we saw coming up here."

"Now what Danny?!" Jimmy asked fearfully as he tightly clutched Danny's stained shirt and AJ whimpered weakly as he suddenly passed out, either due to pain or all the blood he had lost. Thinking quickly, Danny tried to push the tractor, but it didn't budge an inch. He looked at the farm equipment over and saw the plow behind the tractor still had its blades stuck in the dirt. Danny pulled the plow lever, which raised the spikes stuck into the dirt.

The black and white-haired teen quickly took cover again as the bandits fire an arrow at him.

Realizing what he was doing, Kwan took away the chock blocking the front wheel, and the tractor started rolling forward; the four boys moving along with it.

"They're on the move!" One of their hidden attackers shouted. More arrows were fired at the tractor, but thankfully it protected the boys. Their relief was shortlived, however, as the tractor suddenly stopped as it ran into an electrified infected they had pushed down earlier. They were going to have to move it. Kwan pulled the zombie out of the tractor's path and it continued to roll along as they followed it. They continued along smoothly until an infected with no legs crawled it's way behind.

Catching them by surprise, it grabbed onto Danny's ankle with both hands and pulled him and AJ toward itself.

"DANNY! AJ!" Kwan cried as the tractor continued to move forward, leaving the smaller teen and injured boy out in the open.

"KEEP MOVING!" Danny shouted as he quickly pulled out his green sword and sliced the bottom half of the infected's face clean off, making it unable to bite and infect him. He then lifted the infected up in front of him and AJ as some sort of shield as arrows continued to rain down on him and AJ, pinning them down. The tractor stopped in front of the silo, and Kwan kicked the gate open. He gave Danny one last look before he grabbed Jimmy and ran to get help.

"They're getting away!" The first man shouted as Kwan and Jimmy rounded the corner and out of range.

"You lucky sons of bitches! Go ahead and run! We still got yer friends!" The second man cackled and Danny snarled. He was sick of this. He was sick of being chased and hunted, sick of his friends being hurt, sick of all the fights in the group, sick of the hungry and desperate look in his friends' eyes and he was sick of living every second of every day in fear. He wouldn't put up with it anymore.

"Getaway." Danny hissed he felt the rage and fear swirling around in his chest. "Getaway! Get AWAAAAAY!" He screamed as rings of light suddenly consumed his body and he transformed once again. The bandits in the woods stopped firing and started screaming as Danny fired beams of ecto energy into the woods, not caring if he missed or not. A few seconds later the screaming stopped and Danny changed back to normal. As the adrenaline drained from his body, Danny doubled over in pain and looked to AJ, he stared at Danny as if he was the devil.

He almost slapped himself for his recklessness, realizing that AJ must have woken up and seen everything.

Danny walked over to the boy to reassure him, but AJ quickly tried to crawl away in utter terror before ultimately passing out again, scaring Danny. As the teen carefully picked the boy up, SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs, Squidward and Kwan came running around the corner, heavily armed.

"What happened?!" SpongeBob cried when he saw a pale and bloody AJ passed out in Danny's arms.

"The electric fence just came on and nearly fried us, the some people started attacking from the woods and we got trapped between them and the fence!" Danny snarled in rage as he turned to Squidward. "I thought this place was safe!?"

"I heard you yell and thought you were giving me the all clear!" Squidward argued.

"Fucking bandits! They have no right being out here on our property!" Mr. Krabs growled as they made their way back to the farmhouse to try and save AJ. As they walked back to the house, Squidward noticed that some greenish smoke had started seeping out of the forest but there wasn't a ghost in sight. He also noticed all the arrows around and began to wonder how Danny had gotten rid of the bandits. He hummed in thought and quickly ran to join the others...

* * *

As they ran as fast as they could up to the porch, they saw Jimmy and Pearl stood there, waiting for them. They both gasped when they saw the state AJ was in and ran down to meet them halfway. As they examined the injured boy, there was a loud whistle behind them. They quickly turned around in a panic, only to see the rest of the motel group approach and Bucky gave them a wave.

"Hey, y'all!" The former baseball player called.

"Oh, my god, what happened?!" Nicky cried when they finally saw a blood-soaked Danny and AJ in his arms.

"I'm fine but AJ got shot with an arrow," Danny explained as the motor inn group ran over to join them.

"Christ! Is he gonna be okay?" Mrs. Dinkleburg asked.

"Yeah, he'll be fine," Kwan promised as he reached for AJ. "We should just pull it out now." He said but Mr. Krabs quickly beat him to it and pulled AJ out of Danny's shaking grip.

"Oh no, you don't you idiot." He growled. "I'll take him inside now and we'll have him all sorted out." He explained and he, SpongeBob, and Mrs. Dinkleburg walked into the house to tend to AJ.

"What kind of shit is this?!" Vicky howled once the door shut.

"We ran into some people on the way up here, bandits, I think it was them that attacked us," Danny explained.

"They gave us a lot of problems in the beginning, killed a bunch of the farmhands who were here when we got here," Pearl admitted. "Daddy and Squidward were able to get them to stop by making a deal."

"You KNEW about these people?" Bucky glared at the tall man.

"Food for protection." He shrugged. "Not like we had much of a choice, but they did stop hassling us."

"Valerie said this place was locked down tight!" Vicky shouted as Mr. Krabs emerged from the house.

"So much for your 'deal'." Danny glared.

"Those shitheads broke the agreement!" The red-haired man hissed before his expression softened. "I'm sorry, Danny, if I had any inklin' they were gonna give you guys trouble, I would have made Squidward go out there with you!" He insisted and raised his hand to cut his employee off. "Listen, we may have had an agreement with those people, but we will NOT stand for this shit, ain't no way we're gonna let those sons o' bitches get away with this!"

"You know where these assholes are?" Bucky asked.

"They're hard to pin down, but I think I know where at least ONE of their camps are," Squidward said. "When you're ready to go scope out that bandit camp, come find us." He said and he and Mr. Krabs went back into the house.

"Bandits? Are you serious? This place isn't safe, we can't stay here." Nicky insisted.

"Not safe?! Are you insane?!" Bucky laughed bitterly. "This place is a hell of a lot safer than that motor inn! I think all of us and our guns can handle a couple of punks playing Robin Hood with bows and arrows! What we need to do is find a way to get our whole group out here to stay; take this place over if we have to!" He ordered sternly.

"Whoa! Cool your jets there, Rambo." Mr. Dinkleburg said. "These are nice people, let's not do anything to get us thrown out before we eat!"

"I'm gonna head out and help Squidward deal with these bandits," Danny said. "You guys should try to make friends with Mr. Krabs and his daughter Pearl while I'm gone."

"That should be easy." Timmy shrugged.

"Where's Dash and Valerie?" Danny asked, noticing they had two short.

"Since Valerie and Dash ate some of the food on the way back to get us, they volunteered to stay behind and watch the motor inn until we get back." Vicky huffed as Pearl came back out of the house.

"Hey, Daddy remembered seeing kids in your group, so he made Squidward fix that swing while you were out, I hope you kids like swings!" She smiled.

"A swing! I love swings! Come on, guys!" Tootie happily cheered as she, the boys, Nicky and Bucky quickly headed over to play on the swing, and everyone else soon dispersed as well. Not knowing what else to do, Danny decided to check on Timmy and especially Jimmy. He smiled as he saw the kids laughing and enjoying themselves as they took turns on the newly repaired swing.

"Hey, kids, do you like the swing?" He smiled.

"Yeah! It's fun!" They replied and he chuckled a little.

"Be sure to tell Squidward 'thank you', okay?" Nicky said and they nodded.

"Will you push me on it?" Jimmy asked his teenage guardian.

"Sure." He smiled and turned to Bucky, who was currently pushing his son on the swing. "Mind if Jimmy takes a turn?"

"Alright, Chester, let Jimmy have a try for a bit." The blonde man said as he stopped the swing. Chester jumped off the swing and sat on a nearby tree stump next to Tootie and Timmy with Bucky and Nicky standing beside him. Jimmy quickly sat on the swing while Danny gently started to push him.

"How are you holding up, Jim?" Danny suddenly asked, not liking how quiet the boy was.

"I'm okay, I guess." He muttered. I'm just a little worried about AJ, is he going to be okay?"

"He got lucky out there, it could have been a lot worse." Replied Danny.

"Are you going to find the jerks who hurt him?" Timmy glared.

"Of course dear, we have to make sure they don't hurt anyone else," Nicky explained quietly.

"Be careful, I want you to stay lucky, too," Jimmy said to the teen

"Ever since I've met you two I've had good luck, so don't worry." He smiled. "What do you kids think of the dairy?"

"It's pretty." Tootie beamed as a butterfly fluttered passed them and into the crops.

"Yeah, it reminds me of how things used to look before," Chester added, looking a little sad. "Do you think things will ever get back to how they were?"

"Sure thing son, I'm not really sure when, but one-day things have got to get back to normal," Bucky promised his young son, not paying any mind to Danny's disapproving glare. True he hoped things would return to normal, but that seemed very unlikely to happen, at least anywhere in the near future. As Jimmy jumped off the swing and Tootie had her turn, Danny quietly pulled Bucky to the side.

"So, ya found anything interesting while playing up here?" The man asked.

"I'm just trying to make sure this place is secure, in case we decide to make this a more long-term solution." He explained. "Except for those people in the woods, it seems pretty safe."

"Good to know, keep yer ears open for anything else that might help us.

"How're you holding up?"

"I hope they feed us, soon, on the way over here I thought me and my boy were gonna pass out."

"They've got food here."

"Yeah, but I'm not just talking about one meal, ya know?"

"Did you guys get here okay?"

"Well, it wasn't easy," Bucky admitted. "The kids didn't look so good on the walk over to this place."

"If everything works out, maybe they can have an easier life here."

"I hope you're right, they deserve a better life than starving to death at some crappy motel."

"I'm gonna go have a look around some more then I'm gonna help scope out that bandit camp," Danny explained. "It'd be a good opportunity to find out a bit more about Mr. Krabs and their relationship with those bandits or whatever." He said before heading off to check on the others. He went through the gate in front of the barn and approached the gazebo, where Vicky, Kwan, and Mr. Dinkleberg were.

"Danny, oh, my god, I'm so glad you two didn't get killed out there." Kwan gasped when he saw Danny. "Do you think AJ will be okay?"

"Wish I knew, but I think he's in good hands now." He replied.

"How could you all bring us to this place?" Vicky glared.

"How do you feel about leaving the motor inn?" He frowned in annoyance.

"It's a welcome change of scenery." Mr. Dinkleberg smiled.

"I don't know, if we'd just stayed where we were, then AJ wouldn't have ended up with an arrow in his shoulder." Kwan sighed.

"Hey, let's not think like that right now dude, there'll be plenty of time to talk about all our options after we've eaten and after me and Squidward investigate those bandits' campsite." He said with a comforting smile and went to talk to Squidward and Mr. Krabs, who we talking about something on the porch. As he got closer, they noticed him and gave him a look that made the boy uncomfortable.

"Fellas." He greeted nervously.

"Hello Danny, again, I'm really sorry you almost got killed out there." Mr. Krabs smiled. "We should've told you how dangerous it was."

"No shit." Danny glared.

"You saw what they did to your little friend, nobody's safe here until we start to fight back." Squidward insisted.

"But how?" Asked Danny, remembering how he and AJ had barely escaped with their lives.

"The two of us should go out and do some recon, then we'll all mount up for some revenge." The tall man replied.

"Who the fuck are these people in the woods?" He asked. "I know you said they're bandits but where'd they come from?"

"We don't know." Squidward shrugged. "We think some of 'em used to work at the Save Lots up the way."

"They're nutty as all hell and get mad when they're hungry." Mr. Krabs added.

"So, are you ready to head out there and find their camp?" Squidward asked impatiently.

"Yeah, it'll be a good opportunity to find out a bit more about what we're up against," Danny said.

"I'll stay here and hold down the fort." Mr. Krabs said and went in to get Squidward's rifle.

"Remember, we're just doing reconnaissance, for now, no use getting ourselves killed," Danny said and Squidward reluctantly agreed. A few moments later Mr. Krabs returned with the gun and Danny and Squidward made their way to the front gate. Just as they were about to leave, they both failed to notice Jimmy and Timmy watching them as they vanished into the forest.

"Please be lucky."...


	15. Campsite Catastrophe

After they had left the farm, it felt like Danny and Squidward had been walking through the forest forever. Danny really hoped that the bandits' campsite was nearby, the last thing he wanted was to be stuck here until night. The forest was enormous, impenetrable, dark, and budding. Its canopy was demanded by larch, holly, and ash, and the occasional beam of light that made its way through the canopy allowed for a medley of bushes to claim the fertile soils below.

Even though it was mid-afternoon, the thick trees blocking out the sun made it look dark and dangerous.

Still, nature was nice to look at, even in these dark times. Swooping branches dangled from every tree, and a potpourri of flowers, which desperately tried to avoid the shadows, caught attention in the otherwise brown and green forest grounds. A clamor of sounds, which were caused by fleeing animals, filled the air, and almost completely muffled the sounds of a fight over dominance between larger animals.

"See anything?" Danny asked Squidward, who had taken the lead.

"Not yet." Replied the man, looking ver annoyed, whether it was at their situation or at Danny was anyone's guess. "I know it's around here somewhere though, it's gotta be close." He explained. Danny continued to follow him until he felt and heard his foot kick something along the trail. The teen stopped and knelt down, seeing that he had kicked an empty can of soup.

Squidward was right, it had to be close now.

They continued walking a short ways away until they were suddenly stood in front of a camp.

"Oh, shit! We found it!" Squidward exclaimed, but Danny frowned. It wasn't what he had been expecting. All that was there was a single tent, a table with junk scattered on it, and a red van that looked like it had, even more, junk inside it. This camp looked big enough for only one, possibly two, people and true he hadn't seen who'd attacked them, but there was definitely more than two.

Danny didn't like this one bit.

He gestured for them to move forward quietly. They sneaked up on the camp and readied their weapons, prepared for a fight, but no one was there. They continue sneaking forward and hid behind the trees in case whoever this camp belonged to was hiding somewhere nearby.

"You see anybody?" Squidward whispered.

"Looks empty, stay on your guard." He hissed and they entered the camp. "Watch my back, I'm gonna check out the tent." He said and slowly approached the tent and opened it, his sword at the ready. He lowered his weapon after seeing that it was completely empty. "Clear; this camp is way too small, this can't be their main base."

"Take a look around anyway, there's probably some shit around here they stole from us." Squidward hissed.

"Fine," Danny said and started looking around the small empty campsite. He looked back into the small tent and saw that there were two sleeping bags, one of them was kid-sized. He examined the boxes in the van and saw they had 'The Busy Peach' printed on them. The first few days since the invasion started Danny had learned that the authorities told people to gather to The Busy Peach store by the interstate.

There wasn't anything worth taking.

There were also boxes from the dairy here. It was probably the food the original owners and later Mr. Krabs been giving them for protection. The only things he found in the boxes were empty food cans and bottles, proving someone had been here at least recently. Danny pushed the dairy and Busy Peach boxes aside and saw a camera behind it.

Danny picked up a camera and saw it was a little worst for wear.

"What'd you find?" Squidward quickly asked.

"A video camera." He replied as the tall man walked up to the teen. Danny pressed the 'on' button but nothing happened. "Battery's dead." He sighed.

"Oh good." He replied, a little too quickly for Danny's liking, but he shrugged it off. "I see you handle yourself pretty well back there, especially with that sword, you a hunter?"

"No, but Valerie keeps us all on a regular training schedule."

"Valerie, huh? Sounds like SHE'S running this 'democracy' of yours." Squidward scowled as Danny ignored him and stepped inside the tent. As he investigated the tent, Danny found and picked up a dirty photo of a young boy and his mother. He looked at it sadly before setting it down again. He looked at the sleeping bags and frowned when he saw one was the right size for a kid around Timmy and Jimmy.

He felt sick at the thought of a kid being mixed up in this.

Well more like was. He carefully picked up the bloody teddy bear and felt a tug in his heart. Danny put the teddy down and examined the adult's sleeping bag, shocked to find Timmy's pink hat beneath it. Danny frowned in confusion when he and Squidward suddenly heard the sound of twigs snapping. They quickly turned around and saw a middle-aged woman aiming a crossbow at their heads.

She was Caucasian with short brown hair and dressing in a Busy-Peach uniform and she was covered in dirt and blood.

"Don't you fucking move!" She snarled like an enraged, rabid animal as her eyes darted between them widely. Danny quickly pulled out his sword as he put Timmy's hat and away and stepped out of the tent as Squidward pointed his rifle at her. "I ain't going back! You tell 'em Ashley ain't goin' back!"

"Hey! We had a deal! No shooting as long as we gave you food! What the fuck happened?!" Squidward demanded.

"You had a deal with them! I ain't them!" She snarled as her crazy eyes landed on Danny. "I know you, I saw you." She said making the teen's blood run cold. "I know what you are, and I know what you do." She hissed as she snapped her gaze back to Squidward

"You don't know me!" Squidward scoffed.

"Steal my shit, steal everything from me!" She howled.

"We had a deal! You people broke it first!" He argued.

"Why are you alone up here? What happened to you?" Danny asked, trying to diffuse the situation.

"That's a hell of a question, freak." She huffed. "They told me I'd be safe with them, men who lived here, but it wasn't safe, not for me, and not for my boy, they didn't treat him nice, not at all." She sobbed. "They took him away, into the woods, wouldn't tell me where and I begged 'em, every way I could think, they just laughed; so I killed 'em and I'm staying here 'til he comes back to me, one way or another he'll come back." She laughed madly.

"We're looking for the people who attacked the dairy and shot my friend, a little boy named AJ," Danny said and Ashley seemed to freeze before shaking it off.

"I don't know where they are but they ain't here, so get the fuck outta my camp!"

"She's lying, Danny." Squidward snarled.

"Put your damn guns down!" She screeched "You think I won't kill you monsters?! I'm gonna take this here crossbow, and put a nice sharp arrow, right through your eyeballs and into your goddamn brain; you're not men, you're monsters, all men are monsters; take what they want, and then destroy it all, take a can of beans, take a little boy...it's all the fucking same to you!" She snapped, becoming more and more agitated.

"Where did you get this hat?" Danny asked as he pulled out Timmy's hat.

"The little boy." She replied casually.

"You STOLE it from him?!" The teen cried.

"So what if I did? You stole him from ME!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Danny asked, very confused and scared.

"You know what? I changed my mind... I'm putting this arrow right through your FUCKING BALLS!" She screamed, causing them both to flinch and she started cackling loudly, starling a few birds away. "Yeah! Right through; string 'em up on that tree, then I'm gonna head down to that farm and shoot every goddamn person I see!"

"Put down the crossbow," Danny warned as Squidward cocked his rifle.

"No, sir, I need it, I need it to kill you fuckers." She laughed. "Y'all wave them guns like you're lookin' to die, don't need to go lookin' for death, it's already found us., just waitin' to get turned into monsters, some of us already are!" She screeched as she looked to Squidward. "Go on, tell him, you ugly fucker! Tell him what you got in mind for-"

Squidward suddenly shot Ashley in the head.

Ashley's body crumpled to the ground with a sickening thud. The gunshot echoed through the forest, causing the few wildlife still around to scatter into the dark, wet forest.

"You straight-up murdered that woman!" Danny cried out in horror.

"Hardly, she had a crossbow pointed at my forehead!" Squidward argued as he checked the body, seemingly pleased with his handiwork. "It's a clean shot, though, right through the forehead, still, what a waste." He sighed.

"So that's it? Are we going back?" Danny asked.

"If they ain't here, I don't know where they are and it ain't a good idea to go tromping through the woods looking for them." He shrugged. "So, yeah, we're heading back, once they see this, they'll get the message." He said as he bent down and took Ashley's crossbow. "C'mon." The bald man huffed and walked back towards the dairy farm.

Danny took one last look behind him at Ashley's body before he followed Squidward back to the farm...

* * *

It was almost sunset by the time Danny and Squidward finally returned to the farm and in that time Danny hadn't even looked at Squidward, let alone spoken to the tall pale man. You could cut the tension between them with a knife. As they approached the farmhouse, Squidward knew what was bothering Danny so he sighed and stopped in front of the black and white-haired teen.

"What? You ain't getting soft on them, are you? Not after what they did to your friend!" He growled, very annoyed at the teen's attitude.

"I don't want to talk about it." He snapped as SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs stepped out of the house and walked over to them.

"You're back! What happened?" The blonde man asked, sensing the tension almost instantly.

"Handled it." Squidward huffed as he pushed past them and went into the house. SpongeBob sighed as he and Mr. Krabs sat down on the porch stairs and Danny was about to join them when he saw Bucky, Kwan, and Vicky arguing in front of the gazebo.

"What's going on with them?" Danny asked.

"Dunno." SpongeBob shrugged.

"A lotta tension with y'all, huh?" Mr. Krabs asked as politely as possible.

"Don't mind them, it's how they are, each of them wants to be in charge, you know?" Danny replied, slightly embarrassed.

"Well, it's probably just the hunger talkin'! We all get a little testy, we'll fix that shortly!" SpongeBob exclaimed happily.

"And, Danny, don't worry your head about those fucking bandits." Mr. Krabs said kindly. "I'm sorry, you've seen more violence than I'd of liked in your short time, but y'all are safe here, don't worry."

"Thanks, Mr. Krabs, I think I'll go have a look around." Danny smiled as he made to leave.

"Don't wander too far, dinner will be ready before you know it," SpongeBob called before running back into the house to check on the dinner.

"You're friends and the kids are in the barn with the cow, just in case you're wondering." Mr. Krabs pointed out and went back into the farmhouse. One he was gone Danny walked down the steps and saw that Timmy was waving at him from the barn before closing the giant doors. Danny pulled out and examined the little boy's hat before putting it away again and walking over to Kwan and the others.

"Hey, so what happened at the camp? Did you guys find any more of those guys that hurt AJ?" Kwan asked.

"We found a tent and some boxes, nothing really that useful."

"Seriously? No food?" Vicky groaned impatiently.

"We found a woman in the woods, she was talking all crazy and had a crossbow, so Squidward killed her."

"Holy shit, was she one of those bandits?" Bucky asked.

"I don't know, I think she was trying to tell me something, but then he just went off." He explained, casting a suspicious glance towards the house.

"I don't like this, Danny." Kwan whimpered fearfully.

"Yeah, I still say we should go back to the motor inn where we at least know what to expect." Bucky rallied.

"We'll wait until AJ's well enough to travel first." Danny quickly said. "Do you get the feeling something's going on here?" He asked uneasily.

"What makes you say that? Is it because of what happened at the camp?" Kwan asked.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." He quickly reassured. "I think the paranoia's just gettin' to me a little bit."

"I know what you mean, I know they're SpongeBob's friends and everything but these people are really giving me the creeps, if you ask me, we should just get our dinner and leave." Bucky insisted, almost pleading.

"Alright, we'll have dinner, grab AJ and go back to the motor inn." Danny sighed and went to check on the others in the barn...

* * *

As Danny entered the barn, he saw Nicky, Mr. and Mrs. Dinkleberg, and the children all gathered nearby the cow with Pearl. Danny noticed that the caw was a little, unnaturally, skinny. The barn was mostly empty with the only things there were old blue ribbons, bays of hay, and a large door at the very back of the barn, secured by a thick chain and padlock.

"It's okay, you can pet her." Pearl giggled at the children, who eyed the cow as if it was an alien. Jimmy and Timmy looked to Danny for reassurance and he gave them a smile and a nod. With that, the children slowly approached the cow and began to pet her, scared if they did it wrong something would happen. Danny chuckled lightly at the kids' reaction to the large farm animal.

"What's this thing?" Timmy asked, noticing a salt lick nearby.

"Dad said it's called a salt lick," Chester replied.

"A salt lick is a place where animals can go to lick essential mineral nutrients from a deposit of salts and other minerals," Jimmy explained.

"Yeah, but don't lick it," Tootie warned. "It's gross."

"Did you lick it?" Danny asked.

"I don't know..." She shrugged as a faint blush rose in her cheeks. Danny just shook his head with a content sigh as he looked around the quiet barn. He opened the stalls were filled with hay and miscellaneous items such as hay bales, fence posts, feeding troughs, wheelbarrows full of old, dirty clothes, and empty boxes from the dairy farm.

After looking around, Danny returned Timmy's hat.

"My hat! You found it!" Timmy cried joyfully as he took the hat and put it back on. "I knew you'd find it! You said you would!"

"Listen, did you...give your hat to anyone?" Danny asked seriously.

"No." He replied with a confused frown.

"Did you see any strangers around the motor inn who might've taken it?"

"No, why?"

"It's probably nothing, just let me know if you ever see anything like that," Danny said and Timmy nodded before heading back to the cow. It was then that Danny noticed Pearl looking at him closely, concerning him. "Hey, there, Pearl."

"Hi." She replied with a warm smile.

"Um... When do you think, uh, we might eat?" Danny asked, trying to ignore the pain in his empty stomach.

"Hungry, huh?" She laughed. "Don't worry, SpongeBob's cooking up some good grub."

"We met this woman up in the woods," Danny said. "She seemed to know Squidward and your dad."

"Uh, yeah?" She asked nervously. "He, uh, probably talks a little more than he should." She shrugged and turned away from the teen. Danny was about to ask her what was wrong when he saw that Bucky had snuck in and was examining the door in the back of the barn. Danny quietly walked away from the group and walked up to the man.

"Danny, they're hiding something," Bucky whispered. "I got a quick look behind this door, they got boxes of stuff and something metal and sharp."

"Don't get paranoid," Danny warned.

"It's my JOB to be paranoid, Danny." He huffed. "I got my boy on this farm right now; how about you? What about Timmy and Jimmy?"

"I'll protect them, no matter what."

"I know you will." Bucky smiled. "Look, that guy, Mr. Krabs, he locked it up real tight the second we came in, I definitely heard a noise back there, Danny."

"What kind of noise?"

"My point is, we gotta know for sure." Bucky insisted. "So go find a hammer or something, and I'll have this thing off in a second, you back me up in case they come running."

"Hang on, think this through, you smash the lock, and then what if it turns out you're wrong? You just fucked your chance to get a good meal in those kids you're trying to protect, use your head, Bucky."

"Alright, kid, what'd you have in mind?"

"Let me have a look at what we're dealing with first," Danny ordered as he knelt down and examined the screws and the main padlock.

"You know how to pick a lock, right?" Bucky asked.

"No! Why would you say that?"

"Well, you're...you know...young?" He implied.

"Oh, you are NOT saying what I think you're saying." Danny hissed.

"Sorry," Bucky said, looking down in shame. Danny just huffed and went back to the lock.

"You see those screws? Instead of breaking the padlock, we can just take off the assembly, have a quick peek inside, and then replace it all over again, like nothing ever happened."

"Alright, sounds like you have a plan, good job kid," Bucky smirked and was about to find something to take off the assembly when they saw Squidward walking towards them.

"Can I help you boys find something?" He asked, trying and failing to sound calm.

"What's behind this door?" Danny questioned directly.

"Just tools." He shrugged. "We keep it locked so the people in the woods don't try and sneak in and grab them, we'd be dead without 'em." He explained. "Do me a favor and don't fuck around with this door, okay?" He glared at them. Danny was about to respond when the dinner bell suddenly rang throughout the farm.

"Mom! Dinner time! It's dinner time!" Tootie cried.

"Okay, honey, let's get Vicky." Nicky smiled as both girls left with Pearl and the boys ran up to Bucky and Danny.

"Dad! Dad! C'mon, let's EEAATTTT!" Chester cheered as the boys dragged their respective guardians out. As they left, Danny and Squidward stared at each other both the teen averted his gaze and walked awake, leaving the tall man alone in the barn...


	16. Meat is Murder

As they walked inside the farmhouse, Danny got a good look at the large house's interior. The first floor of the house was equipped with a modern kitchen and one small bathroom, it also had a huge living room and a cozy dining area. From what he could see it looked like the second floor was the same size as the first, but part of it hanged over the edge of the floor below, creating an overhang on one side and a balcony on the other.

That floor had a very different style than the floor below.

From where Danny was standing he could clearly see that the backdoor was boarded up with a few boxes stacked against it.

"We had to block the back door after an infected got upstairs, but don't worry, that was a while ago and they ain't been back inside since." Mr. Krabs reassured the boy as he led him into the dining room. When they entered the dining room everyone was already sitting down and Danny was surprised at the amount of feed laid out on the table. There was bread, biscuits, fruit, vegetables, and what looked like small steaks.

"Oh, boy!" Chester exclaimed as he took his seat, his braced mouth drooling in anticipation.

"Ooh, this is a delight!" Nicky beamed.

"I could eat a horse," Bucky added.

"Where's AJ?" Timmy asked, noticing his friend was nowhere to be found.

"Now don't you worry about him, I've already brought some food up to him so you just let him rest." Pearl smiled as she placed some food on her plate.

"Mind if I wash my hands first?" Danny asked nicely.

"Bathroom's right outside in the hall and is sure to get under your nails, you've been muckin' around in the dirt all day." Mr. Krabs laughed. Danny nodded and entered the hallway. He instantly started looking around the first floor of the house but all he found was a college diploma, a baseball trophy, a blue ribbon, a photo of what he believed were the original owners, and a medicine cabinet. The only thing in the medicine cabinet, however, was some shaving cream, a bottle of lotion, and gauze pads.

Danny sighed in defeat and was about to return to the dining room when he suddenly heard a low moan coming from upstairs.

Danny glanced back at the dining room before he quietly sneaked upstairs. Once he reached the top of the stairs, Danny opened the first door, which turned out to be the closest. The closet was full of morphine, candles, towels, and recently used medical supplies. There was also a trashcan full of medical waste such as IV tubes and saline. Danny frowned, wondering why would dairy farmers need this kind of stuff. He was about the close the closet door when he saw a power cord hidden behind the medical supplies.

Danny turned on the power cord and noticed that it went through a hole in the back of the closet and lit the bedroom next to him.

Now Danny was getting really worried. Taking a deep breath to regain his nerve, Danny entered the bedroom. It was a rather small bedroom with simply a bed, a window, and a bookshelf full of farm books and cookbooks. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Danny looked at the bed and realized something that made his blood run cold. AJ was nowhere to be found. Danny was certain that he thought Mr. Krabs said the little bald boy was up here resting.

The sinking feeling only got worst when he saw some bloodstains on the floor by the bed.

Danny, however, reluctantly shrugged it off. AJ had been shot in the shoulder with an arrow, there was bound to be a little bit of blood from when he was being treated for his injury. The black and white-haired teen was about to go back downstairs when he finally noticed that the area behind the bookshelf was lit up. As quietly as possible, Danny pushed the bookshelf out of the way to reveal a door. When he opened the door, it took all his will power not to scream.

He had opened the hidden door to discover an incredible pale AJ lying on the floor of a hidden bathroom, heavily bleeding everywhere, with both of his legs severed above the knee.

"AJ?! What the hell happened?!" Danny cried and he ran and knelt next to the boy.

"...get... away..." AJ moaned in fear, his voice incredibly shaky and weak.

"What the hell happened to your legs?!"

"Don't...eat...dinner..." AJ sobbed as he slumped to the ground.

"Danny, did ya fall in?! Dinner's on the table and everyone's havin' at!" Mr. Krabs suddenly called from downstairs with a hearty chuckle.

"Barbecue! Wow!" The teen heard Chester exclaimed.

"How on earth did you get barbecue meat?" Vicky asked rather loudly and Danny got up, horrified as he realized what everyone was eating for dinner. He had to get to them before that ate something they'd regret. Danny ran down the stairs like a bolt of lightning and burst into the dining room. When he got there Jimmy and Timmy were about to take a bite of the steaks.

"DON'T EAT THAT!" He screamed at the top of his lungs and everyone stopped, startled.

"What?" Mrs. Dinkleberg asked.

"Did you find anything?" Bucky asked.

"Sit your ass down, Danny." Vicky hissed. "I won't let you cheat me out of a hot dinner."

"What's gotten into you?" Kwan agreed.

"He just had a start." Pearl quickly said, fear evident on her face, as her father and Squidward kept their gaze to their food.

"You're eating HUMAN meat!" Danny screeched, choosing to be direct.

"That's crazy!" Vicky scoffed.

"What the hell?" Bucky gasped.

"That's ridiculous!" Mr. Dinkleberg cried.

"You're scaring the kids, Danny." Mrs. Dinkleberg warned as Chester and Tootie took bites out of food, trying to ignore all the shouting; seeing this Nicky and Bucky quickly snatched the plates from their children and set them aside.

"Mommy, I was eating that!" Tootie whined.

"Quiet, honey," Nicky instructed.

"What is going on?!" Jimmy cried in confusion and fear.

"They're picking us off to trade as meat," Danny explained angrily

"You're outta your skull!" Vicky snarled.

"AJ is UPSTAIRS right now with NO LEGS!" Danny shouting her, causing the teenage girl to jump. "Tell me he's NOT being eaten right now!" He snarled as everyone looked to Mr. Krabs. The red-haired man looked at all of them before sighing and lowering his head.

"It's true." He quietly admitted.

"Everything could have turned out okay for you folks." Squidward bitterly hissed, still not meeting anyone's gaze.

"He would have died anyway! We gotta think about living!" Pearl desperately tried to justify.

"Settle down, honey." Mr. Krabs said and turned to the traumatized group. "Growing up, me parents taught me not to waste, it's how I was raised and how I raised me, girl." He explained. "Now, you got monsters roamin' around that do nothin' but eat people, and for what? To continue to rot 'til they eat some more; we think we can put that meat to better use." He exclaimed as the group pushed their plates away.

"Ugh... I'm gonna puke." SpongeBob gagged.

"You're all sick! Sick in the head!" Danny cried. in disgust.

"That's not a very nice thing to imply," Pearl whined.

"Pearl's right; we go after folks who were gonna die anyway, one way or another." Mr. Krabs explained.

"Like all of you," Squidward growled, finally looking up at them.

"Alright, screw this! We're getting the hell outta here!" Bucky shouted as he stood up.

"Nobody's going anywhere!" Mr. Krabs snarled as he drew his pistol and stood up. Squidward quickly got up as well and drew his rifle.

"We got lots of use for you all right here." The tall man smirked as he pointed his gun at Bucky and the man slowly returned to his seat.

"What...the...what...the fucking...what...fuck!" Vicky sputtered in shock and terror.

"Put your guns down! We're walking out of here!" Bucky howled. "You don't go near my fucking son!"

"I don't wanna die." Chester whimpered.

"Mommy, what did I eat?" Tootie moaned.

"Danny! Danny!" Timmy yelped as Squidward grabbed his shirt and yanked him back to stand beside him. Jimmy jumped at the man and started hitting his side, only for Squidward to kick him away before pointing his gun at Danny.

"Let go of him, you son of a bitch!" Danny snarled and made to charge forward but stopped and took a step back after Mr. Krabs put his gun at his neck. A standoff ensued and nobody dared move a muscle. Just then, a lump and wet thud echoed throughout the farmhouse. Weird noises were heard in the hallway, and everyone turned to see AJ dragging himself along the ground.

"PLLLEEEASE... SOMEONE!" He groaned.

Everyone gasped and screamed in shock and horror. Danny turned to Jimmy and Timmy and tried to run towards them. Before he could, however, Pearl suddenly stood up and whacked Danny in the back of his head with a plate. Danny tried to get back up but ultimately blacked out...

* * *

Danny groaned as he finally regained consciousness a while later. The first thing he noticed was that he was no longer in the dining room. Instead, he was lying in a sterile storage type of room with Mr. Dinkleberg, Kwan, Bucky, Nicky, Tootie, Vicky, SpongeBob, Jimmy, and Timmy. As his senses returned to him, Danny saw that Vicky was banging on the door and the others, minus Jimmy and Timmy, were coughing and gagging up the food they had eaten.

"Open the goddamned door! You can't keep us here! OPEN UP! I WILL TEAR YOU FUCKERS APART WITH MY BARE HANDS!" Vicky screeched like a banshee.

"Will you stop that banging?! We've gotta find another way out!" Bucky snarled as the others vomited in the corner of the room.

"You sick fucking bastards! OPEN THIS DOOR, GODDAMN IT! I will knock the goddamn door down!"

"Vicky, stop!" Nicky pleaded as she wiped Tootie's mouth.

"Danny!" Timmy gasped when he and Jimmy noticed that Danny was awake and ran over and hugged him tightly.

"It- it was a person!" Jimmy cried into his shoulder in horror. "They tried to make us eat a person!"

"But you didn't do it right?" Danny asked and breathed a sigh of relief when they shook their heads.

"The rest of us did, goddamn it! If you hadn't dragged your feet-"

"C'mon, Vicky, now's not the time," Nicky muttered as it appeared that she was gasping for air.

"You okay, boys? They didn't hurt you, did they?" Danny asked his wards and once again they shook their heads.

"Danny, those psychos have my son and Mrs. Dinkleberg, and we're stuck in a damn meat locker! We gotta get the fuck outta here!" Bucky shouted.

"Is there a way out?" Danny asked as he stood up.

"Yeah... THROUGH THIS FUCKIN' DOOR!" Vicky shouted.

"If they so much as touch my boy, I'll kill those sons of bitches!" Bucky exclaimed.

"They locked us in here, I think it's a meat locker." Tootie sniffed, her eyes red from crying.

"OPEN UP, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!" Vicky roared.

"Vicky! Please, stop!" Nicky begged as she lightly clutched her chest.

"This goddamn black and white freak was the one who brought us here!" The red-haired teen bellowed as she glared at Danny. Danny wanted to respond but felt a tug on his shirt. He looked down and saw Jimmy looking up at him with wide eyes.

"I'm scared." He admitted fearfully.

"Don't be, it's gonna be okay." He reassured him. "I'm gonna find us a way outta here." He promised and began looking around for an escape route. Unfortunately, all he found were boxes full of meat and Danny didn't want to know what kind of meat. There were shelves that looked pretty sturdy. They could climb up but there was no way out through the ceiling. Danny looked at some salt licks on a table nearby. He picked one up and grunted when he felt how heavy it was before putting it back.

At first, Danny thought they could heave it through the door but quickly decided against it, believing that door was too solid.

"Can we help?" Timmy suddenly asked as he and Jimmy walked up to Danny.

"Sure, you two need to keep your eyes open for exposed screws or loose panels, anything we can pry away to open a passage out of here."

"Okay." Jimmy nodded and they immediately started looking around the room. Danny noticed Bucky angrily pacing around the room. Not wanting the man to go nuts, Danny quickly approached him.

"They've got Chester and Mrs. Dinkleberg, Danny! Those fuckers have my son!" He yelled in rage and fear.

"I know, we're gonna get out of here and find them." He promised and tried to think of an escape plan, but it was becoming impossible with Vicky's constant screaming and banging on the door. Holding in an irritated sigh, Danny tried to make her stop for a few seconds.

"C'mon, Vicky, do you really wanna attract their attention?" Kwan asked.

"Yeah, I wanna attract their attention so I can fucking kill them!" She shrieked.

"What the hell is your problem?" Danny snapped and she stopped her attack on the door and faced the fellow teenager.

"You refused to give me my day's rations back at the motor inn and you went outta your way to be a real asshole to me tonight, you must really hate me but guess what? You're stuck with me and I plan to be around long after you're gone." She laughed bitterly. "And if you turn I'll be the one to put that sword of yours through your fucking skull; don't forget... I know who you really are." She warned before going back to slamming her fist against the door. "Open up, goddamn it!"

"No, you're not worth the energy to hate." Danny sighed and went back to looking for an exit. It was then that he saw a small air conditioner in the wall just above the metal sturdy shelves. He examined the air conditioner and suddenly got an idea.

"I'll break the damn door down!" Vicky suddenly hollered.

"Vicky! You can't get-" Nicky tried to speak when she abruptly grabbed her chest in pain. "Ahh! Urg!"

"Easy..." Mr. Dinkleberg tried to ease, but it didn't do any good.

"MOM?!" Tootie screamed as her mother collapsed to the ground...


	17. Starved For Help

"MOM?!" Vicky and Tootie screamed as their mother collapsed to the cold tile ground and it was then that Danny saw something he never had before. He the true fear and concern in Vicky's eyes. Tootie started sobbing loudly as Mr. Dinkleberg pulled her away from her mother. The red-haired girl almost instantly rushed to Nicky's side and put her hands on either side of the older woman's face.

"Oh, god, she's stopped breathing, I think she's had a heart attack!" Vicky cried as she started performing chest compressions.

"Shit! Is she dead?" Bucky asked in fear.

"She's not dead, somebody help me!" Vicky pleaded.

"Fuck...if she's dead..." Bucky gasped and turned to Danny. "You know what has to happen, Danny; think about it, you saw that poor bastard at the mother inn, how fast he turned."

"What are you saying?!" Vicky growled in a warning tone.

"Vicky, Tootie, I'm sorry, I truly, truly am," Bucky said sympathetically. "But in a few minutes, we're gonna be stuck in a locked room with a dead woman!"

"FUCK YOU! We can bring her back!"

"We'll mourn her later, but right now, we have to keep her from comin' back."

"Noooo!" Tootie sobbed loudly as heavy tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Goddamn it, Bucky! She's not dead!" Vicky roared.

"We can still save her." Mr. Dinkleberg suggested as Vicky furiously continued doing chest compressions.

"I wish we could believe me, I do, but that woman is dead and you BOTH know what happens next," Bucky stated.

"Look, Bucky, back at the drugstore when you all thought I was infected, you gave me the benefit of the doubt, maybe we should do the same now."

"That was different! You weren't infected, but come on, we KNOW Nicky's not gonna make it!" He angrily insisted. "Remember what Dash said, gotta destroy the brain or heart; come on, Danny, you can't be in the middle on this one, you've gotta have my back this time!"

"Goddamn it, Danny! I NEED you! Please help me!" Vicky desperately pleaded, but Danny had already made up his mind.

"Is she breathing at all?" The teen asked as he knelt at Nicky's other side and took over doing chest compressions. If there was even a chance he could save her he was going to take. He wouldn't let another child lose their parents if he could help it.

"No, no I don't think so," Vicky replied, shocked that the boy was helping her.

"Keep checking her pulse!" Danny ordered as he failed to notice Bucky looking at the salt licks on the table behind him.

"Are you stupid?! She's gonna turn! You're putting all of us at risk, you son of a bitch!" Bucky howled at him. Danny ignored the man, however, and continued counting in his head, trying desperately to save the dark-haired woman. All of a sudden, as soon as he counted to five, Bucky grabbed a salt lick and dropped it on Vicky's head, smashing it.

"NOOOOOO!" Vicky and Tootie screamed as their mother's blood and brains painted the

"BUCKY!? WHAT THE FUCK?!" Danny yelled as he stood up and Tootie took his place by her dead mother's side.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I just- it had to be done!" He defended.

"You don't know that!" Danny argued.

"Yes, I do and so do you! I was counting on you!" Bucky snapped before he approached Vicky, who was hugging Nicky's body. Danny growled until he saw Timmy and Jimmy sobbing in the corner, the latter covering his eyes. "I'm sorry," Bucky said to the crying girls as he went to hug them. "I know it doesn't seem like it right now but you-"

"Don't you fucking touch us!" Vicky wailed as she practically bit at his hand.

"Are you okay?" Danny quietly asked the two boys.

"Is it over?" Timmy whimpered.

"I don't know." He admitted. "One of those people might come back any second, we need to find a way outta here." He explained and hugged them both as they sobbed. "Shh... I know, I know, but you gotta be strong right now; I need you to be strong, think about something else...something hopeful."

"Like what?" Timmy sniffed.

"We're gonna get out, right? You found a way out?" Jimmy asked.

"I'm workin' on it." He said as he stood up and the boys sat down with their backs against a box of meat. Danny looked down at them with regretful eyes and turned back to Nicky's body. Deep down he knew it was necessary, but he just wished the kids didn't have to witness that. Tootie especially. The black and white-haired teen became worried at what it was gonna do to her.

"She was still alive, she was still alive..." Vicky wailed into her mother's body as Danny knelt beside her.

"Bucky...he made a bad call." Danny soothed, choosing to ignore the scowl the man sent his way. "It was premature for sure, but...he really WAS trying to keep us all safe."

"Bullshit." She hissed. "He cares about keeping his FAMILY safe; he doesn't give a shit about you and me."

"He puts his family first, sure, just like any parent would." He said calmly. "I'm sorry, Vicky, I truly am; we might not have got along so great, but I know you would do anything to protect the ones you love; but you've got to think about saving your's and Tootie' life, it's what she would've wanted..."

"Please, I need to be alone." She whimpered and Danny obliged, knowing the sisters deserved time to grieve. He saw Bucky glaring daggers at him and went to confront the blonde man.

"I don't wanna hear it, kid." He snapped as Danny stepped up to him. "You think I liked doing what I did? I'm the guy who couldn't bear to watch the family dog get put down, but if we wanna survive this shit, we gotta have the balls to do the hard thing, or at least, one of us's got to."

"You talk a big game, but could you do the 'hard thing' if it was Chester?" Danny challenged.

"It's never gonna come to that, not if I have anything to do with it!"

"I hope you're right." Kwan sighed.

"I know I'm right! I just gotta get to 'em, that's all!"

"Look, if we're gonna survive this shit, we've got to work together," Danny explained. "How do you expect Vicky or Tootie to work with us after what they just saw you do to their Mom?

"If they want to live, they'll work with us." Bucky huffed. Danny glared and turned back to the air conditioner he had seen earlier.

"There should be an air duct behind this unit, maybe big enough for one of us to fit through." He examined.

"Does the air conditioner come off?" Jimmy asked as he walked up to the older men.

"I think I could take it off if I had something to remove the screws," Danny said and looked closely at the screws securing the air conditioner. He attempted to remove the screws with his hand but it was not coming off that way. "If the duct behind the air conditioner is big enough, we might've found our way out of here, but I need something to loosen the screws."

"I got nothing," Kwan replied.

"Hang tight, maybe I can scrounge something," Danny said.

"Wait, back at the motor inn, didn't Vicky say see had some change in her pocket?" Kwan suddenly asked.

"Worth a shot." Danny sighed and walked back over to the grieving sisters.

"Why can't you just leave me alone...?" Vicky droned when she heard him approach, but didn't look up to face him.

"I'm sorry Vicky, but if we're gonna get out of here, we need your help. He explained. "I think I may have found a way out of here but I need something to remove the screws on the air conditioner, back at the motor inn, you mentioned something about keeping coins in your pockets."

"Fucking vulture." She snarled before suddenly throwing two quarters and a dime at him.

Danny flinched as the coins hit him in the face but knew he shouldn't retaliate. Instead, he simply picked the coins up and examined the air conditioner again. All he had to do was remove these screws and get this unit off then they'd have an escape. Without a second thought, he quickly used one of the quarters to unscrew one of the screws.

"You got it?" Kwan asked when they heard the screw drop to the floor.

"Yeah, one more should do it." He replied and unscrewed the second screw. He and Bucky removed the air conditioner unit and place it on the floor.

"Well, there's our way out," Bucky said as they looked down the dark passage.

"We don't know where it leads." Danny pointed out.

"Looks like it'll probably lead right into that back room," Kwan added.

"It's too small for us to fit through." Danny frowned.

"I can do it." Timmy suddenly said. Danny's first instinct was to reject the idea of the young boy crawling through a dark vent and into an unknown area when there were cannibals walking around; but after thinking it over, he realized their only options were either let Timmy risk this or stay there, waiting to be eaten. He took a deep breath and knelt in front of the boy.

"I know you're brave enough, just be careful."

"Don't tell the others, but I'm scared." He admitted quietly.

"Remember the treehouse? You and Jimmy held out there for days."

"And I saved your life!" He smirked.

"That's right!" Danny chuckled and lifted Timmy into the vent. "You're gonna be fine." He promised, not sure if he was trying to reassure Timmy or himself.

"What do I do when I get out?" Timmy asked as he climbed into the vent.

"See if you can get to the other side of that door and open it," Danny instructed. Timmy and everyone listened as he crawled through the vent and got out to the other side, only to suddenly gasps. Danny panicked and tried to climb into the vent after him, but was held back by Bucky and Kwan. After a moment, the buck-toothed boy opened the door to the meat locker. Almost instantly Danny pulled him close and started checking him over.

"Are you okay?! Did anyone see you?!" He cried, heart, pounding with adrenaline.

"No." He replied as he pushed Danny off him. "But there's a man outside." He added with fear and Bucky immediately started to leave.

"Where the hell are you going?" Danny glared.

"What do you care?" He snapped, still angry for the teen not having his back, before running out.

"Bucky!" Danny called out but he was already gone. "We gotta go." He ordered and everyone moved to the exit.

"Leave me alone." Vicky moaned.

"Danny! I can see him!" Kwan whispered, looking out the door.

"It's not safe in here," Danny told her.

"For god's sake, I didn't even get to say goodbye!" She snarled and Danny backed off and turned to the boys and Mr. Dinkleberg.

"Stay here, take care of them, okay?"

"I will." Mr. Dinkleberg nodded and Danny and Kwan exited the meat locker, only to enter a room filled with blood, jars of human meat, and killing devices. They found Bucky hiding near the door that led out into the barn. From where they were Danny could hear the heavy downpour of rain and booming thunder from a strong storm raging outside.

"I told you there was something up with this room!" Bucky hissed when the two teens joined him. "It's a goddamned human slaughterhouse!"

"We'll talk about this later, right now we need to find a way out of here," Danny said as he took a peek out into the barn and saw a silhouette standing guard by the barn doors, but he couldn't tell who it was. He started looking around the room for a weapon. As his eyes scanned the room he looked at the mitre saw felt sick to his stomach. He noticed the open vent and felt the guilt bubble in his chest. He shouldn't have sent Timmy through there.

This room would give anybody nightmares, let alone a child.

At least he and the others were safe in the meat locker, for now anyway. He checked the bloody tub and blood and came to the horrifying conclusion that this is where they butchered people. Danny thought he was going to be sick when he saw a mini cattle prod tossed on the ground near him. He picked it up and pressed the button to turn on the electricity. As he turned it off he saw Bucky partly open the door to the barn and try to creep out.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Danny whispered.

"Getting my family back!" He retorted.

"What are you gonna do, walk up and grab his gun?" He scoffed.

"Good a plan as any." Bucky glared before leaving.

"So, what's the plan?" Kwan asked the skinner teen.

"We could probably sneak right up to him before Bucky does something stupid," Danny explained. "Just stick behind me in case anything goes down; when we get to the front, grab his gun."

"Sounds good." Kwan nodded. They two of them crouched down and slowly sneaked a little way into the barn where they found Bucky hiding a few stalls away from the barn doors. Danny finally saw that it was Squidward guarding their only way out. He was sitting on a hay bale at the front entrance, his gun resting on the bale. Bucky, Danny, and Kwan looked at the gun and then each other. They sneaked forward through the barn as quietly as they possibly could.

The storm outside howled and swirled throughout the night.

Completely oblivious to the three men's presence behind him, Squidward grumbled to himself, annoyed at the fact that he had to stand guard out in the rain while his boss and his daughter were cozy and warm in the house. How was he supposed to know that legless brat would wake up? He thought the kid had enough drugs in him to keep him out for the rest of the night. The tall man shivered, wonder how long he was supposed to stay out here.

He looked back up at the house, wondering what Mr. Krabs and Pearl were still talking about.

It seemed pretty simple to him, keep some of them alive for fresh meat, and kill the rest. He knew Mr. Krabs was looking out for him and Pearl, but he had to stop playing favorites. Squidward knew Pearl was his daughter and was pretty smart, but that didn't make her better than him. He heard a thud from back in the of the barn, but he quickly shrugged it off, thinking that it was just the angry girl who was at it against the door again.

He snarled as he thought about that group locked in the meat locker.

Those people were going to ruin everything he and Mr. Krabs had built here. True SpongeBob was with them and he and used to respect each other, but Squidward warned his boss that the simple man wouldn't agree with their actions, but of course, Mr. Krabs and Pearl knew best, or so they said. At least Squidward could have that victory. Just then Mr. Krabs walked up to his employee, stopping the man's train of thought.

"Squidward quit sittin' out in the rain like a damn weirdo." He huffed in annoyance as Danny, Bucky and Kwan quickly hid in the stall. "We can't keep that many people alive and not expect trouble, pick one to keep and kill the rest."

"Can I pick which one to keep alive?" Squidward smirked sickly.

"Not the kids, not enough meat on them to trade." Mr. Krabs replied and with that, the red-haired man walked away. Danny went pale and peeked out to see Squidward stand up and carefully place a beartrap on the ground just outside the barn door. Danny's eyes widened when he suddenly realized that it must have been them that placed that trap in the woods that got Ms. Tetslaff killed, not the bandits. As they slowly crept forward, the cow mooed.

Thankfully Squidward didn't turn around, he was too busy setting up the trap, still smiling.

This was the tall bald man's favorite part. When he would let one think they could just walk right out of the meat locker and to freedom. They never even looked down. Danny watched as Squidward finished setting up the altered bear trap before closing the barn door, trapping them all in the barn with him and moving to the right where Danny couldn't see him.

"They're talking about killing us!" Danny whispered to his companions. "Sick fucker thinks this is a game!"

"No shit." Bucky retorted.

"We'll take him out together," Danny said.

"How?" Kwan asked.

"He doesn't know we're out." The teen reminded. "He's gotta walk past us to get to the meat locker, we can take him out when his back is to us."

"Well, see where that fucker is now," Bucky instructed. Danny nodded and looked out back into the barn. Only to find Squidward standing in front of him, pointing his rifle at right him. Before he could shoot, however, Danny grabbed the gun and moved it away from him as it fired. Being so close to the gun, Danny had to cover his ear after the loud sound hurt his hearing. As he crouched in pain, Squidward reloaded the rifle and aimed his rifle at the boy.

Thinking quickly Kwan opened the stall door, which knocked the rifle out of Squidward hands.

Before the tall man could recover, Bucky stabbed his shoulder with a sickle, making him drop his gun, then stabbed him again in the same place. Squidward fell onto the floor and his left leg was suddenly caught in the trap he had just set up for them. Bucky was about to attack him again, but just then they heard Mrs. Dinkleberg screaming. Thinking for a second that his son might be with her, Bucky ran off into the storm to look for his soon.

Having recovered, Danny picked up a pitchfork and pointed it at the trapped Squidward.

"You see?! You understand now, don't ya?!" Squidward cackled with a large, crazed smile. "You can have me! It's how the world works now! Give part of yourself so others can live!"

"Cannibalism is NOT the answer! Aren't the ghosts and infected killing enough of us?!" Danny shrieked.

"AJ never volunteered to be food!" Kwan added, greatly disgusted.

"That's why you killed that woman in the woods!" Danny gasped in horror. "She was about to spill everything!"

"You weren't ready to hear yet! Had to stop her!" Squidward replied. "You gotta keep me alive, if you kill me, the meat gets tainted! You can't eat it!"

"You're already tainted." Danny snarled, tightening his grip on the pitchfork.

"You ain't gonna kill me, just like you didn't kill that bitch at that camp." He scoffed. "You don't have what it takes! Fucking coward!" He laughed bitterly. Danny bared his teeth angrily and raised the pitchfork. Squidward braced himself for the killing blow but was shocked when Danny instead stabbed the pitchfork into the hay bale behind the deranged man.

"This is NOT how the world works now! You won't make me kill you!" Danny shouted as the others slowly walked out of the meat locker.

"Fuck you, Danny." Vicky snarled when she saw the teen spare his life. "You let Bucky MURDER my mom, but you leave THIS piece of shit alive?! You're a fucking asshole!" She exclaimed, but before Danny could answer, a loud scream sounded over the storm outside.

"That's my wife!" Mr. Dinkleberg cried and tried to run out, only to be stopped by Danny.

"Keep the kids safe, I'll get Chester and Mrs. Dinkleberg!" He ordered and ran out into the dark thundering night. He tried but he couldn't see anyone through the heavy rain as thunder and lightning crashed and boomed through the sky. Danny looked at the house and saw the lights on and shadows moving near the windows. He was about to head up to the house when he heard rustling in the cornfields. He looked over and saw an infected approaching.

Danny was worried that the electric fence, but before he could think about it any longer the infected was suddenly axed by Valerie, who was hidden in the cornfield.

"Valerie!" Danny cried in relief.

"Danny?" She frowned as Dash appeared beside her. "Is everyone okay? When you guys didn't come back I figured something was up and then we heard screams as we were coming up to the house!"

"They attacked us." Danny quickly replied.

"I knew it! I told you we couldn't trust them!" Dash cried.

"Shit, where are the others?" Val asked.

"Nicky's dead; they chopped off AJ's legs and tried to feed them to us!" He cried, the color draining from Dash and Valerie's faces. "They've still got Chester and Mrs. Dinkleberg in the house and I don't know where the fuck Bucky is!"

"Alright, we're coming in to help," Valerie stated but Danny quickly shook his head.

"The main gate's too dangerous, go around the fence and see if there's a back way in, I'll keep looking for Bucky." He instructed. "Do you have a weapon?"

"I don't leave home without it." She smiled as she loaded her gun and turned to the jock. "Dash, stick close and Danny, be careful." She frowned before they both left and Danny snuck up to the house. As he got closer to the front door, he saw at least three silhouettes standing behind the door.

"No, no, please, god, no, NO!" He heard Mrs. Dinkleberg cry from the house.

"Just shut up and he'll be fine!" Pearl snapped.

"Something's up." Mr. Krabs said. "I'm gonna take the boy and check around back."

"No, please, don't take him!" Mrs. Dinkleberg pleaded.

"Settle down," Pearl said. "I don't wanna hurt you." She added as Danny reached the stairs, only to freeze when the teenage girl looked out the screen window in the door. "Squidward? Daddy, is that you? What's going on out there?"

"I left Squidward in the barn, he got what he deserved!" Danny shouted, frightening Pearl.

"Oh, god." She panicked and backed away from the door. Danny reached the front door, only to see that Pearl had taken Mrs. Dinkleberg hostage and was pointing a gun at her head.

"DANNY!" Mrs. Dinkleberg cried.

"Get back! Don't come in here! You just HAD to go snooping around, didn't ya?!" Pearl shrieked.

"Let her go, Pearl!" Danny shouted as he entered the house and she aimed her gun at him.

"Danny, please don't you take another step!"

"Pearl, come on, now, you know you don't wanna do this."

"Just go away and leave us be!" She pleaded as she aimed the gun at her hostage and Danny slowly moved forward. "Stop right there! I mean it!" She snarled and aimed the gun back at him.

"Think about what you're doing, it doesn't have to end like this!"

"I'll kill her, Danny!"

"Don't do this... please..." She sobbed as Pearl tightened her grip around her neck. Danny still slowly moved forward as the lightning flashed. He noticed his sword and Bucky's gun propped up against the wall in the hallway. He looked up the stairs behind the two women when the lightning illuminating what he quickly realized was AJ's arms, trying to grab at Pearl, but being stopped by the wooden railings. He felt a sinking feeling twist in his gut when he saw that the boy was dead and had come back as an infected.

He felt like crying.

AJ was just a little boy who was innocent. He thought there was still a chance to save him, even if it was small. He started to regret letting that bastard Squidward live.

"Stay back! Don't do anything stupid!" Pearl suddenly shouted as she slowly dragged Mrs. Dinkleberg backward and up the creaking stairs, completely oblivious to the threat behind her. Danny's eyes widened as he was suddenly struck with an idea.

"What happened, Pearl? You're obviously really smart! How did it come to this?!"

"Just stop!"

"Pearl, please." Mrs. Dinkleberg sobbed as Danny moved forward again and Pearl walked back a few steps.

"I don't wanna kill you, Danny!"

"Please, don't make this any worse."

"Just stop!" Pearl screamed as Danny continued moving forward, and Pearl aimed the gun at Mrs. Dinkleberg's head again as they backed up the stairs. Just then an infected AJ suddenly latched onto the pale, blonde girl and bit her neck as she screamed bloody murder; Mrs. Dinkleberg quickly broke free and ran to Danny as he grabbed his sword and Bucky's gun, only to realize they had emptied it of bullets.

"They took Chester! Where's my husband?!" She cried desperately, but before he could answer, they heard shouting and gunfire just outside of the farmhouse.

"I said don't move, asshole!" They heard Mr. Krabs shout.

"Don't you fucking hurt him!" Bucky snarled and they both ran outside to see the horrifying sight of Mr. Krabs pointing a rifle at the back of Chester's head and Bucky standing a distance away. "Let him go, goddamn it!"

"That ain't gonna happen!" Mr. Krabs snapped as Danny ran to Bucky's side.

"Don't do anything stupid!" The black and white-haired teen warned until Bucky suddenly rushed forward and the angry red-haired man shot him in the side. Chester screamed as Mrs. Dinkleberd ran to Bucky as he fell on the ground.

"Who the fuck do you people think you are? Look at what you've done!" Mr. Krabs howled over the raging rain and wind.

"You brought this on yourself." Danny spat.

"No! Uh-uh! YOU did this! All we wanted was a little gas to keep ourselves safe!" He shouted when all of a sudden he was shot in the left ear. Danny looked over his shoulder and smiled when he saw Dash and Valerie, with her gun aimed at the psychopath. They must have found another way in. Chester finally managed to break free of the man's grip and ran away. Danny charged Mr. Krabs and they wrestled with the rifle. The teen smashed the rifle into his face, and they fall down the hill and crash through the picket fence at the bottom.

As Danny tried to get up, Mr. Krabs ran over and kicked him in the head, making him fall to the ground.

The older man quickly started up the generator and the electric fence turned on. He dragged Danny by the back collar of his jacket as he struggles against him. Mr. Krabs held back Danny's arms and tried to shove his face into the electric fence. Danny quickly broke free and elbowed Mr. Krabs in the face, knocking him to the ground. Before he had a chance to get back up, however, Danny quickly climbed on top of his chest and started repeatedly punching him in the face as everyone regrouped behind him.

Even with everyone watching him Danny didn't stop, not even when his eyes started glowing a venomous green.

He wanted this man to pay for what he had done to them. For what he did it AJ, to Nicky, to Chester, to Dash, and to all the innocents he and the other two had no doubt eaten since they'd been hiding up here. The others watch him beat the life out of Mr. Krabs in shock, not daring to move, until Valerie suddenly stepped forward.

"Danny, that's enough! He's had enough!" She shouted and Danny froze, his breathing heavy and his heart pounding. He sat there for a few moments before he regained himself and his eyes returned to their natural color as he stood up and backed away.

"Is that all you got, Danny?" Mr. Krabs laughed bitterly. "You ain't shit!"

"IT'S OVER!" Danny shouted as loud as his lungs could manage.

"Fuck you." He panted as he stood up on shaky legs. His face was badly bruised and bloody and he was missing a few of his front teeth. "As soon as Squidward and Pearl get out here, you're all fucked!" He laughed.

Danny, however, said nothing and started to walk away.

"Don't you DARE walk away from me boy!" He shrieked as he fell to his short knees. "Get back here and finish this boy!" He ordered and for a brief second, Danny actually considered it. He wanted to kill him and he was certain the others felt the same way. He could easily grab Valerie's gun and shot him, or stab him with his sword, or throw him into the electric fence or continue beating in his face. But that would be too easy. He wanted that man to suffer but as he looked back at the group, he realized there had been enough death on that farm.

He wasn't about to bloody his own hands and there was no way he was going to make the kids witness any more death and hate.

With a heavy sigh, Danny walked to the group.

"Get back here and fight me like a man, Danny! Danny!" He screamed, but Danny ignored him as the generator suddenly stuttered to a grinding halt.

"They're getting in!" Timmy cried as dozen of infected walked out of the forest and climbed over the fence towards them.

"Let's go..." Danny sighed and the group started to leave as Mr. Krabs weakly called after him. SpongeBob stayed stood where he was for a few seconds, staring at his former boss and friend, trying to figure out what brought the man he once thought so highly of to this point. Just then he heard groaning and looked out up to see an infected Pearl stumbling out of the house and down towards them.

"Goodbye, Mr. Krabs." SpongeBob sniffed sadly before running to catch up to the others, leaving the infected and ghosts to swarm the farm...


	18. Desperate Decisions

No one spoke as the group trudged through the dark forest to return to the motor inn. The storm had stopped a few minutes ago, but the dirt trail had turned to mud, causing them to be mindful they didn't slip. They were all still in shock at what they had witnessed at the dairy farm with Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and Pearl. Mr. and Mrs. Dinkleberg were holding each other's hands tightly. Bucky carried his son in his arms, too scared that if he put the boy down something would snatch him back up again.

Danny also made sure both Jimmy and Timmy were holding his hands.

The only one not comforting the kids was Vicky. She was too busy glaring at the ground as she walked along. Her little sister Tootie was trailing behind the red-haired girl, still sobbing but by that time she had long run out of tears to cry, but the older sister refused to comfort or even acknowledge her. Seeing this, Timmy and Jimmy let go of Danny's hand and went to give the little girl some support. Danny wanted the boys to stay by his side where he could better protect them but knew Tootie and Vicky need as much support and comfort as the group could offer, even if the latter refused their help.

As they continued along, Valerie sped up so see was walking beside Danny near the front.

"Hey, Danny, I'd say I'm sorry for leaving the motel unattended, but, ya know." She said.

"I'm glad you showed up when you did," Danny replied. "If you hadn't taken that shot at Mr. Krabs, we might not have gotten out of there."

"Were they really killing people? For food?"

Yeah, they were." He growled in disgust. "We should've known something was up..."

"How the hell do we foresee that?" She asked in disbelief.

"I don't know, I really don't." He muttered.

"Mrs. Dinkleberg managed to grab this while she was in the house, she said it was with your stuff." She said and handed him Ashley's video camera.

"Yeah, I found it while I was looking for the people who shot AJ." He explained sadly as he remembered AJ. "Do you want it?"

"Why don't you keep it? Sometimes it helps to have something you can document your thoughts on." She smiled warmly at him, which he weakly returned. All of a sudden everyone stopped when Bucky suddenly hunched over in pain and groaned, nearly dropping his son. Danny walked over to see if he could help as the Dinkleberg's rushed to the father and son's side.

"How are you doing?" Mrs. Dinkleberg asked as she and her husband took Chester and helped the father stand up.

"I'll be fine." He reassured the concerned couple. "I'm just not as young as I used to be." He joked until he saw Danny walking up to him with a steely expression on the teen's face. "Could you two go on ahead with Chester and give me and Danny a second?" He asked and the couple walked away with the blonde boy. "There's gonna be fallout." He said quietly once they were both alone.

"For killing Tootie and Vicky's mom? Yeah, I would imagine so." Danny glared.

"What do you think about all this?" Bucky asked, but much to his frustration, the teen remained silent. "Fine then, I saved Chester at the school and didn't save Dolores; now I kill someone before it can put your little boys in danger, and I'm even more of a monster." He chuckled bitterly. "I don't care anymore, you do what you have to do, I'm'a keep doing what needs to be done." He glared before walking away towards his son and the Dinklebergs.

Danny sighed and was about to walk back to the others when Tootie suddenly stood in front of him.

"Danny? Are those bad people dead?" She asked and Danny froze, trying to think of the best answer.

"We didn't kill them, so I don't know." He admitted. "They might have been able to get away from the ghosts and infected, but I'm sure they won't be coming after us now." He reassured her.

"That's good." She muttered. Danny was about to say something else, but everyone froze in fear at a rumbling type of sound.

"Hey, what's that noise?" Chester asked fearfully.

"Sounds like a car..." Dash replied.

"Oh, god...not more strangers." Kwan whimpered as took the lead and the group snuck over to the sound and saw what appeared to an abandoned black van on the road with its lights on and both doors open.

"Hello?" Danny called nervously as he pulled out his sword. When he received no reply, he snuck up slowly to the car. He noticed that the gas was completely empty and took the keys.

"Oh, crap! You guys gotta see this!" Bucky cried happily as he threw open the van's back door. "There's a shitload of food and supplies back here!" He laughed as everyone went up to the car.

"This food could save all of us." Mrs. Dinkleberg smiled, nearly crying in relief.

"Not ALL of us," Vicky muttered, glaring hard at Bucky, who simply sighed.

"Look, we don't know if these people are dead." Dash pointed out. "If they come back, then we're just monsters who came out of the woods and ruined their lives."

"This stuff isn't ours," Jimmy added.

"Dad, whose car is it?" Chester asked uncertainly.

"Don't worry about that, Chester, it's ours now." He reassured. "It's abandoned, don't worry.

"What if it's not? What if it's not abandoned? What if it IS someones?" Tootie asked with a small glare. Danny looked between her and Jimmy and the others who were crowding around the van. He looked back at the black van and noticed boot prints in the mud by the driver's side door. Whoever owned this van had left very recently and was probably nearby.

"You're right." He sighed, much to the shock of the others. "We shouldn't take this."

"What?! Did you get some meal back there the rest of us missed out on?! We HAVE to take this stuff!" Bucky shouted.

"We've done enough damage already." The black and white-haired teen glared.

"What do you mean by that?" Bucky asked coldly.

"Come on, Bucky, between this and the meat locker, you know what it means."

"Fine, suit yourself, the rest of us are taking this stuff." He huffed and the group began searching the supplies. Jimmy and Tootie stood back and watched with Danny, holding the teen's hand. "Okay, what have we got in here?" The former baseball player asked.

"Look, there's more food in that box!" Dash exclaimed.

"They've got antibiotics!" Mrs. Dinkleberg gasped.

"What else do they have?" Her husband asked. "Any electronics? Radios? Batteries?"

"See if there's any water," Valerie called.

"Here," Bucky grunted as he handed some of the boxes to Dash and Kwan. Chester and Timmy were sat in the van's front seats, watching the teens and adults unload the supplies.

"Hey," Valerie said as she walked over to Danny, Jimmy, and Tootie. "There were some batteries in one of those boxes, I thought they might work in your camcorder and for Timmy's walkie-talkie." She explained and gave him the batteries.

"Thanks," Danny replied and waited until she had gone back to the group before putting the batteries in the camcorder.

When the video it had recorded started playing, Danny's skin ran cold. The video showed the group at the motor inn. By the looks of it, it looked around the time they had first set up camp there. Vicky and SpongeBob were carrying a couch out of one of the motel rooms, and Danny and Bucky were pushing a car away from the front of the motel. The video then zoomed into the kids drawing on the floor and Nicky approaching them to talk.

The video then cuts forward to when Danny, Kwan, and Bucky first found Dash, Dale, and Ms. Tetslaff.

It recorded as the boys left the teacher to die, but to Danny's utter shock and terror, it recorded him transforming and destroying the infected as well as the nearby trees. The video suddenly turned upside down as Ashley dropped the camera.

 _ **"YA FUCKIN' SICKO FROM HELL! THEY CALL YA GHOSTS! BUT YOU'RE FUCKING RAPIST MONSTERS-"**_ She howled before the video cut out.

The video suddenly showed the motel group from later in the day, after Dash had arrived at the motel while Dale was being treated by SpongeBob. The video zoomed onto Timmy, then followed Danny as he walked up to the boys.

 _ **"Oh, darlin', baby. Look at you. Look. At. You. Oh, you need a mama, sweetheart. We won't let them bandits or monsters get you, will we?"**_ Ashley rambled on as the camcorder continued to record Danny, Jimmy, and Timmy.

 _ **"How ya doing, guys?"**_ He smiled but noticed Timmy's hat was missing. _**"Where's your hat?"**_

 _ **"I don't know, can you help me find it?"**_ The buck-toothed child asked.

_**"Sure, when did you lose it?"** _

_**"I had it a couple of days ago."** _

_**"I promise, if I find it, I'll let you know."** _

Ashley suddenly turned the camera around to her face.

 _ **"All thinkin' you're safe, sittin' there actin' like things are the way they used to be."**_ She twitched madly. **"The dead don't kill their own, it's the living you gotta be afraid of... the people I used to call friends... the people who took..."** She let out a breath that sounded like a sob crossed with a rabid growl before scowling. _**"Don't worry, little boy, bandits and monsters got their eye on that dairy; as long as they keep getting food from them, you'll be safe, I promise."**_

With that, the video ended and Danny stood still, trying to comprehend everything.

He knew he had heard a woman shouting in the woods when he had transformed, but he had chalked it up to being the dying screams of Ms. Tetslaff. That must have been how she knew what he was, she had seen him. Danny looked up at the group and back to the camcorder. He couldn't let them see this, ever. Quietly, he removed the batteries and tossed the device behind his back and into the bushes, hoping that was the end of it...


	19. Scavenging

It had been three long weeks since the group had escaped from the dairy farm and tensions were running higher than before. The group of survivors continued to use the motor inn for shelter since they had obtained more supplies from the back of the abandoned van. While everyone was trying to get back to their routine before what happened there were some who just couldn't. Vicky and Bucky were very clearly trying to avoid and ignore each other the best they could.

The red-haired teen had become much quieter, way more paranoid, and was put in charge of managing the supplies with Valerie, hopefully focusing her mind on something else.

Tootie had also become more fearful and started clinging to the adults more than the boys ever did. Nobody could blame their behavior though, especially Tootie's, it was a horrible thing to happen to anyone, let alone a child. Even Bucky was wise enough not to bring up Nicky around the two girls. Although, whether this was because of understanding, pity, or guilt, Danny had no idea. Not that it really mattered to him. As long as it didn't do any more harm to the already damaged group then Danny was fine with the tension.

That's what he kept telling himself as he volunteered to go with Bucky back into Amity Park to scavenge for supplies at the drugstore.

As they walked through the deserted streets, Danny looked around in sorrow at the state of his old him. Most of the buildings had started to crumble or had been outright destroyed. Store windows had been smashed and looted and more vehicles had been abandoned and left randomly on the roads and sidewalks. As they walked through the empty streets, the two survivors were ready for trouble. They were both wearing backpacks for any supplies they found and Bucky was holding a pistol.

Danny was holding a rifle instead of his usual sword.

As they sneaked through Amity Park, Bucky motioned for the teenager to be quiet and peeked around a corner to the drugstore. Seeing that the coast was clear, they walk into the empty road and got a good look at the building. The drugstore had definitely seen better days. Stones from the roof had fallen down and had blocked the entrance with a few cars, including an army jeep. There was a large truck crashed through the side of the drugstore.

There was also an army helicopter crashed through the roof.

"Looks like this is our lucky day," Bucky smirked.

"Maybe, they tend to take us by surprise." Danny pointed out as he cautiously looked around.

"Yeah, well, the less I see, the happier I am." He huffed as Danny looked inside a broken and partially boarded-up window into a tool store but after seeing it was practically empty he moved on. As they kept walking, Bucky suddenly grasped his side as he groaned in pain, still recovering from the wounds he received from the dairy farm.

"You made up your mind yet?" The blonde man asked his companion.

"About what?"

"When it comes to gettin' the hell out of Amity Park and that motor inn." He huffed in annoyance. "I bet you're in the 'let's stay-put' camp, considerin' I been pushin' everyone to leave."

"We should go," Danny replied, slightly catching Bucky off guard. "The motel's run its course and it's not safe."

"You're damn right it has." Bucky grinned, happy to have the teen's support. "We pile into the RV and don't pull over 'til we see the water, and if anyone's dead-set on staying, then, well, that's the way it goes." He explained as they reach the destroyed remains of the pharmacy and drugstore. "Okay, just like last time, over the rig, into the pharmacy, and scrape together whatever supplies are left."

"We didn't leave much in there." He sighed.

"We're out of options, somethin's better than nothin'." Bucky glared as he climbed up the ladder on the side of the truck that had crashed into the pharmacy. As he reached the top, one side of the ladder became slightly unattached.

"You okay?" Danny asked.

"The ladder's come loose, I'm not sure how many more trips she's got in her."

"I'm not sure how many more trips we've got in us."

"No kiddin'." Danny sighed before noticing Bucky was still clutching his injured side. "Still sore?"

"I took a bullet to the gut, what do you think?" He glared.

"Maybe you should have stayed behind."

"I'll be alright."

"Think we'll find anything?" Danny asked. "Not much left in there."

"You're right, we're lucky we found that van in the woods, despite you and those kids getting all high and mighty about it; if we'd hit the road as I suggested, we wouldn't be in this situation." He glared. Danny simply rolled his eyes and grabbed onto the bottom rung of the ladder only for the whole thing to suddenly break off. Danny growled and tossed it to the ground.

"Looks like she's had it." He glared.

"What now?"

"I'll find another way up." He said and looked around for another way up. He saw the abandoned army jeep parked very close to the truck and thought about climbing on the wrecked car and climbing up. He tried to push the jeep forward but was unsuccessful. He looked at the jeep's tire and glared when he saw all the tires were completely flat. He had to find a way to move the car and noticed the winch attached to the front of the wrecked jeep.

He examined the winch and it looked like it still worked.

He looked at the winch controls and was overjoyed to see that they were working. He carefully pulled the winch and attached it to the side of the truck before rushing back to the jeep and activating the winch. The winch started pulling the jeep towards the truck and Danny walked beside it.

"Vicky's not doin' so good, huh?" Bucky suddenly asked, a clear look of regret on his face.

"It's not good," Danny admitted. "I'm worried."

"No shit, there's a lot to be worried about, she's gonna snap."

"Your boy and Tootie still upset with me for taking stuff out of that van?"

"I haven't asked."

"You even TALK to those boys anymore?" Bucky accused as the jeep reached the truck, and Danny climbed onto it; the teen glared at him but didn't respond as Bucky's expression softened. "Chester was asking about that woman at that school last night."

"Really? I wasn't sure it phased him." Danny shrugged.

"Of course it did!" Bucky snapped.

"It was a scary situation for him; Dolores dying and all." Danny sighed, remembering the fear in the blonde child's face when Danny saved him.

"I'm just worried he'll always think it was his fault." Bucky sighed as he extended his hand towards his younger friend.

"You sure you're up for this?" Danny asked, looking at Bucky's recovering side.

"Kid, I'm fine, I've got this, gimme your hand." He ordered. Danny shrugged before grabbing the man's hand and Bucky began to help him up, but suddenly dropped him onto the jeep and groaned in pain, holding his side. The black and white-haired teen cried out in pain as his back hit the hood of the jeep. Bucky quickly looked out at the street but sighed in relief when no ghosts or infected appear.

"Nice one; next time I'm bringing Dash!" Danny remarked as he stood back up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He grunted, still holding his side. "Shit, I'm sorry, pal, I thought it'd be healed up better."

"You're lucky it wasn't any worse," Danny said. "You could of-"

All of a sudden, a bloodcurdling scream shattered the tense silence as a grime-covered woman ran out of one of the buildings as three infected chase and surround her in the streets.

"GO AWAY! HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP ME! OH, GOD! OH, GOD!" The woman desperately bawled.

"What the- what the hell is that?! An infected?!" Bucky exclaimed.

"The infected don't scream! Do they?" Danny asked.

"Jesus! I don't think so." He replied as Danny looked through the scope of the rifle. The woman continued screaming and calling for help; a zombie grabbed onto her as she fell to the ground, but she managed to push it away and get up.

"It's a girl! We have to help her!" Danny insisted.

"How?! There's no gettin' to her!" Bucky exclaimed.

"We gotta do something!" He glared and raised the gun to shoot the infected and save the stranger until an infected crawling on the ground snuck up on the woman and bit into the woman's leg. Danny's heart dropped, knowing it was too late to save her. "Fuck, we gotta shoot her, put her out of this misery."

"They don't know we're here." Bucky suddenly said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we leave her alive and she draws them all to her, buying us time." He explained, shocking Danny. "Think about it! We're always worryin' about the ones we can't see; she stays alive and brings them all out of their holes!" He added. Danny wanted to object to this horrible idea but when he looked back to the girl he saw an infected pull the girl's hair and bit her shoulder. She stumbled away and more infected continued to swarm her.

Danny fought to keep himself from throwing up as he turned his back on the woman, desperately trying to ignore her cries for help.

Bucky helped the teen up to the top of the truck and they enter the backdoor to the drugstore, closing it behind them. Even from inside the pharmacy, Danny and Bucky could still hear the screams of the woman.

"We should be good to clear this place out, but we ain't got all day," Bucky said. "Get everything you can out of these racks, don't forget underneath the counter this time! I'll clear down here and then we gotta go!" He ordered before running ahead.

Danny quickly began moving a shelf upright and looked down the different aisles. There were plenty of items still in the drugstore. Between the two of them, they had found: adhesive bandages, gauze, medical tape, antibiotics, antiviral drugs, painkillers, antihistamine, aspirin, laxative, hand sanitizing liquid, candles, a multi-use tool, paper towels, tweezers, plasters, safety pins, a thermometer, superglue, and needles. As they regrouped and secured the supplies, the screaming faded into silence.

"She's gone," Bucky stated sadly before steeling his gaze. "There's not much time now."

"I think that's everything!" Danny exclaimed as he doubled checked.

"That girl didn't die for nothin', then," Bucky said when a large group of infected started pounding on the door. Bucky swiftly jumped over the now empty counter and Danny followed suit. Before they could run, however, the infected managed to knock a door over, trapping Danny beneath it. The teen tried to push the door off himself, but with the infected piling on top, it was too heavy. Bucky ran over and helped him lift the door off himself and drew his pistol.

Danny pushed a nearby fridge over, blocking the door and crushing an infected beneath it.

Bucky started shooting the nearby infected as they ran to the front of the drugstore. As Danny followed him, an infected suddenly jumped out in front of him. Danny whacked the zombie with his rifle; it tried to grab him but he used his rifle to push it back into the debris, and its chest was impaled on a piece of rebar. More infected started to approach.

"Let's go, pal!" Bucky called as he and Danny escaped through a hole in the wall...


	20. Investigations

After escaping the drugstore, it took Bucky and Danny just over two and a half hours to walk back to the motor inn. When they returned to the motel, they saw Dash is keeping watch, sitting in a chair on the RV, holding a rifle. The children were drawing and playing on the sidewalk and Timmy was seemingly talking on his radio but ran up to Danny when he saw his guardian.

"You're back! Mr. Dinkleberg found some stickers in a drawer and I put 'em on my walkie!" He exclaimed and showed Danny the pink and green stickers on the radio.

"Hey, squirt, that's neat, I'll find you in a minute." He smiled as he and Bucky walked passed the children and towards one of the rooms. Danny knocked on the doorframe of the open door and Valerie opened the door all the way. The men stepped into the room and saw Vicky sat on the bed waiting for them.

"Looks like we got the kid on watch again." Bucky scoffed. "We might as well leave out a giant sign on the door that says 'the men are gone, come and rape our women and children'."

"What'd you get?" Vicky glared, ignoring the man as Danny took the rifle and gave it to Valerie, who set the rifle down on her dresser.

"A lot of stuff," Danny replied as he and Bucky handed the girls their backpack. They placed them on Valerie's bed and searched it.

"Nice work, this will keep us going." Valerie smiled. "If we carry on like this, we'll get through the winter here."

"The winter? We'll freeze our asses off here!" Bucky exclaimed.

"Because piling into an RV with you, after what you did to my mom, is so appealing." Vicky retorted bitterly.

"Why wouldn't it be? You know I'll do what it takes to keep everyone safe." Bucky counted, the two of them standing almost toe to toe,

"We're already safe." Valerie agreed.

"Take a look at the wall, that's not graffiti." Bucky glared, "Those are bullet holes and we got enough arrow shafts sticking out of it to dry our laundry and that's all besides the fact that Amity Park is busting at the seams with ghosts and infected."

"We don't have ghosts or infected problems." Vicky scoffed.

"We do whatever is best for the kids, doesn't that make sense?" Danny asked, still trying to stay neutral.

"It's suicide out there." Valerie pointed out.

"We'll die in here," Bucky added.

"You're right, you could see someone sleeping and kill one of us." Vicky snarled and the room fell into an awkward silence. Having heard the arguing, the adults and teenagers began to walk up to the room and Kwan poked his head inside.

"So, you two are, uh, having a disagreement?" Kwan asked nervously.

"Can it, Kwan!" Bucky snapped.

"Don't boss people around," Valerie warned.

"I'm sorry, but somebody needs to make executive decisions for the group though, and I don't think you're capable anymore!" He shouted.

"Bucky, we're all losing it with the attacks and lack of food." Mr. Dinkleberg tried to calm the man down.

"We're strongest together." Danny insisted before turning to Vicky. "It can't be you versus us, Vicky, we're sorry for what happened to your mom, but we're in this together now."

"What about the food situation? What about protection? What about when this place falls? Somebody's gotta be thinking about this shit!" Bucky shouted.

"How has this not been working? We have everything we need." Valerie replied.

"'Cause of me." Bucky scoffed.

"That's bullshit, Bucky, and you know it!" Vicky snarled.

"What about medicine?" Bucky asked.

"What ABOUT medicine?" Valerie demanded as Danny remained silent, too worried that whatever he said would set something off.

"Everything that happens to us is another excuse for you to pull this crap about leaving," Valerie stated. "All I want is a week of peace; of not hearing it!"

"Do you know how we got these supplies?!" Bucky shouted. "We got lucky and let a girl get eaten out there!"

"What...?" Mrs. Dinkleberg gasped.

"Some girl came screaming out of an alley," Bucky explained. "She had the dead hanging all over her, she gave us enough time to get everything we could out of the drugstore."

"You just let her suffer, like what, like bait?" Valerie hissed.

"You weren't out there." Bucky huffed.

"You guys couldn't try to save her?" Dash asked, very disturbed.

"Don't take that tone with him; it's the first smart thing he's done in a while," Bucky said as Danny looked away from everyone's judgemental gaze. he really did want to save her.

"Glad to know you think being a killer is smart." Vicky glared.

"Hey, if you don't agree with it, then we'll take everything we've got in these bags and put it in a pile marked 'no hypocrites' and you can use everything else!" The blonde man shouted. "I don't like living like this but, Christ, folks, it's not getting easier!"

"She was dead anyway, it made the most sense in the heat of the moment," Danny muttered.

"Danny's right, we've been putting our lives on the line doing these runs into the city, you wouldn't believe the shit we see! You should be thanking Danny for not shooting that girl!"

"It's not so EASY for him." Vicky hissed.

"Look, Amity Park and its people aren't savable, it's not a town, it's full of those monsters and the people who WERE left are dying and wandering out onto the streets, it's hell on Earth and it's coming this way!" Bucky warned.

"IT'S NOT GOING TO BE EASIER OUT ON THE ROAD!" Vicky roared.

"How would you know?!" The man argued.

"WHAT I KNOW?! I know you're not above murder! I know somebody has been STEALING our supplies! That's right, STEALING; and I know the list of people I can trust here gets SMALLER EVERY DAY! Now everybody GET OUT!" She ranted as she pushed everyone out of the room. The red-haired girl slammed the door shut and everyone started to disperse, leaving only Danny, Valerie, and Bucky by the door.

"She's right about one thing, none of this is gettin' any easier." Bucky glared before he walked away as well.

"Oof, things are coming to a head." Valerie sighed

"You could say that," Danny replied.

"Well, I think you did really well today and I find myself thinking that most days." She reassured as she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks."

"It's probably worth following up with Vicky about what she was saying about missing supplies, 'cause I haven't noticed anything and with her wound up the way she is, I don't wanna see her paranoid."

"No problem."

"And I'd like to talk when you've got a minute." She said, Danny nodded and she left. Once he was alone, Danny gently opened Vicky's door and quietly entered the room. She was sitting on the bed with her head in her hands but looks up when Danny approached. The black and white-haired teen said nothing as he took a seat in an armchair opposite her.

"Did you come in here to give me hell or to coddle me?" She growled.

"I wanted to follow up on what you said about stolen supplies." He replied

"Do you know what's going on?"

"I don't, I just heard you mention it."

"And you came in here to confess?" She asked angrily.

"I'm not stealing shit; I came in here to help!" He snapped. They both glared each other down for a few moments before Vicky sighed in defeat.

"There's a traitor, somebody, one of us, out there." She explained. "He or she or they have been taking things."

"Paranoia isn't going to help us," Danny said quietly, trying not to anger her anymore.

"I know what this sounds like, but I'm not paranoid!" She shouted. "The count's off and it's the good stuff, anything with opium in it!"

"Well Valerie checks the count too and she says it's fine."

"I keep my own, that one's getting messed with." She counted. £I'm a fucking mess right now but I'm not stupid! I know what happens if I start a witch hunt!"

"Oh I see, so you want me to start one?"

"I want you to poke around."

"What's there to go on?" He asked and Vicky reached under her bed and pulled out a large broken flashlight, which she handed to him.

"I found this tossed into the garbage." She replied as he examined the flashlight. "We don't toss out equipment, we fix it, you'd only try to get rid of a flashlight if you were using it when you shouldn't."

"Seems like you're manufacturing this from nothing."

"Prove me wrong, or I'll just assume it was you." She glared. Danny returned the hate-filled glare before leaving the room. As he was closing the door and turned around, he was suddenly greeted by Timmy and Chester just standing there.

"A mystery!" Chester gasped with a big grin on his face as Danny practically jumped out of his skin.

"Sorry, we heard you guys talking," Timmy admitted, a mischievous glint in his blue eyes.

"You need to un-hear all of that." Danny glared.

"Can we help?" The pink hatted boy asked.

"What did I just say?"

"You're the greatest detective and we can be your assistants!" Chester squealed in delight as Timmy gaze his teenage guardian a puppy-eyed look. Danny and Timmy swiftly entered a staring contest and although Danny fought valiantly, he ultimately lost a battle of wills against Timmy's pleading puppy dog eyes.

"Fine, you can help, just don't tell anybody." He sighed.

"Secrecy!" Chester whispered.

"What do we do?" Timmy asked.

"I don't know, go look around and let me know if you find anything weird."

"We're on the case!" They both grinned and ran off to look for 'clues'. Danny gave a weak chuckle and shook his head at the boys' antics before returning to the task at hand. As he looked around he looked at the RV and sighed. It sounded like Bucky actually had that thing running but Danny would only believe it when he saw it for himself.

As Danny continued to look around, he noticed some broken glass on the ground nearby.

He walked over and inspected the broken glass, only to find that it fitted the broken flashlight Vicky had given him. He hummed in thought as he followed the glass trail and was shocked when it led him to a drawing on the wall. It was a large X drawn in pink chalk. At first, he thought maybe it was the kids as they were the ones to mostly use the chalks and crayons the group had found, but he quickly realized the X was too high up for any of the children to reach.

Chester and Timmy quickly joined him.

"A clue!" Chester gasped when they saw the X.

"Maybe." Danny wondered, trying to figure out what the X meant.

"What do you think it is?" Timmy asked.

"Maybe it's a sign!" Chester exclaimed.

"It could be." Danny agreed. "It's pink chalk, which is weird."

"Okay, back to investigating!" Timmy grinned before he and Chester ran off again. Danny simply rolled his eyes at their antics, only to notice other chalk drawings on the ground, one of which was pink, then he looked to Tootie and Jimmy, who were currently using chalk to draw. Danny planned on talking to them but saw that Valerie was standing on the upstairs of the motel, waiting for him.

He climbed the stairs to speak to the dark-skinned girl, who was leaning on the railing of the balcony with her arms crossed.

"Talk to Vicky yet?" She asked.

"Yeah, she thinks supplies have been walking away." He replied, slightly irritated.

"Really?"

"There's some broken equipment too, I'm looking into it."

"Thanks for doing that." She smiled, but it dropped as she lowered her gaze slightly. "What I wanted to say was, I've been thinking a lot, about you."

"I think about you too." He admitted nervously.

"Our group is small." She stated, seemingly out of nowhere before glaring at the fellow teen. "You're parents is responsible for this mess"

"Valerie..." Danny moaned, not wanting to talk about his parents, ever.

"I think people should know." She suddenly said, catching him off guard. "Not because they deserve to and not because you're a bad man; people need to know because we're hanging by a thread here and I can't see Vicky talk about you without thinking it's the next thing she's going to say, you don't have to tell everyone, but think about who you trust and take the opportunity while you have it."

"Forget it." Danny glared. "I have, you should too."

"Vicky knows." Valerie reminded him. "If she doesn't tell everyone outright, she'll probably say enough to make them wonder; I'll tell you what I would tell anybody, apocalypse or not, there comes a time when you can get out ahead of something like this and discuss it on your terms, do it before that chance is taken away."

"No, I'm not doing that," Danny stated, disappointing Valerie. "People have enough to worry about."

"What are you so afraid of?" She asked angrily. "Three months ago, I told you to tell no one and now I'm telling you to tell everyone here, do you think it's because they will turn on you? We almost got eaten, for fuck's sake! Things are different now, I hope you change your mind." She sighed. "Now, um, is there anything else you want to talk about?"

"You really think people are ready to hear about me?" He asked as he looked down at the others.

"It's not a manner of ready or not." She replied. "There's never going to be a good time but there are going to be a lot of bad ones, right now doesn't seem like one of them but everyone's different; who knows how each person would take it, you know? Maybe it's worth thinking about who you wanna tell."

"Do you feel safe here?"

"Show me a bath with a heated floor and hand me a full-bodied Malbec, and then I'll feel safe." She weakly joked. "I don't know, this place is fine but we all know that that could change any second."

"Do you know anything about this flashlight?" He asked as he showed her the flashlight.

"It's broken."

"I know it's broken." He sighed. "Did you break the flashlight?"

"No." She glared.

"Do you have any chalk I can borrow?"

"What, the kids holding out on you?"

"So you don't have any?"

"No, why would I?" She asked, genuinely confused.

"Nevermind, I need to speak to the kids." He said and quickly walked away before Valerie could say anything. He walked briskly down the stairs and over to where Jimmy and Tootie were still drawing on the ground.

"Hey, kids." He smiled.

"Hey, Danny," Jimmy replied, but Tootie hardly glanced at the teen.

"What's that you're working on?" Danny asked.

"Just some calculations I've been working on, nothing too serious." Jimmy nonchalantly and Danny's eyes widened at the sight of complicated math and science calculations that he would never have thought an eleven-year-old could grasp as easily Jimmy clearly was; the equations looked like something he would see in his parents' lab.

"That's really something." Danny smiled as he looked at Tootie's drawing only to see it was of her parents with her and Vicky. "Do you like it here?" He asked them both.

"I don't LIKE it here." Tootie glared, not looking up from her drawing.

"Do you want to leave?"

"Where are we going?" Jimmy asked.

"Somewhere else."

"I don't know, maybe if I knew where," Tootie muttered.

"Yeah, that'd be a good thing to know," Jimmy added.

"Neither of you accidentally break a flashlight, did you?" Danny asked as he showed them the flashlight.

"No, did Timmy say I did?" Jimmy glared.

"No, did he break the flashlight?"

"I don't think so, he's just always blaming me for stuff." He huffed.

"Like what?"

"Putting a bug on his pillow."

"Did you do that?" Danny frowned, crossing his arms, but Jimmy simply shrugged his shoulders as a mischievous smirk spread across his face. "Do you have any pink chalk?"

"No, it's gone somewhere," Tootie replied and Danny hummed in thought. "Do you want blue?" She offered, holding the said chalk up to him.

"No, no, it's okay." He kindly declined.

"You know, a piece of charcoal is a suitable alternative, depending on your marking surface." Jimmy suddenly pointed out. "Since we're on the subject, did you know that while chalk is traditionally known to be calcium carbonate, what's often used in classrooms is actually made of gypsum, thanks to favorable domestic mining conditions?"

"I did not know that." Danny chuckled as he ruffled the boy's hair, slightly irritating his ward. "I'll talk to you later," He said before walking off to continue his search and saw Bucky and the Dinklebergs were having a somewhat heated discussion. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"We're okay." Mrs. Dinkleberg replied.

"Just having a little spat," Bucky added with a glare.

"We all carry guns now, and, well, I don't like it." Mr. Dinkleberg said, glancing at the gun on the couch between them.

"It's the way it's gotta be." Bucky insisted.

"I know, but we're not getting used to it." She sighed. "I'm sorry, how are you, Danny?"

"You guys trust everyone here?" The teen asked.

"More or less." Bucky shrugged. "I obviously have my problems with Vicky and sometimes Valerie but I don't distrust them."

"Yeah, we can't turn on each other any more than we have." Mr. Dinkleberg said.

"Do you guys know anything about this broken flashlight?"

"Fuck, we don't got many of those," Bucky growled, clearly annoyed.

"Yeah, it's a problem, the glass and the bulb are all busted out." Mr. Dinkleberg pointed out.

"I saw some broken glass over by the ice machine, I meant to clean it up before the kids hurt themselves on it; I forgot, though." His wife added.

"Don't worry, I'll clean it up later; I'll talk to you later," Danny promised before going to talk to Dash, who was still on watch duty.

"What's up?" The blonde jock asked.

"Have you seen anything weird on watch? Is there anybody out there up to anything?" He asked.

"No, been really quiet."

"That's good, by the way, a flashlight was broken, was it you?"

"No," Dash replied, a little too quickly.

"You're not in trouble if it was." He reassured. "I know you get nervous and maybe you went out to go to the bathroom, broke it, got worried, and tossed it."

"What's with the third degree? I didn't break any flashlight!" He exclaimed. Danny glared and wanted to press the matter further, but thought better of it. He simply walked away from the jock and over to Kwan and SpongeBob, who was leaning against a wall, looking glum. If Dash did have something to do with the symbol or the broken flashlight then it was a good bet that Kwan was in on it.

"Hey, guys." The black and white-haired teen greeted as he walked up to them.

"Hiya." SpongeBob weakly replied while Kwan just grunted in some form of acknowledgment.

"Do you know anything about this flashlight?"

"I don't." Kwan shrugged, not even looking at the device.

"Me neither, I'll keep my eye out for some suitable parts, though, that'll give me something useful to do." SpongeBob sighed.

"What do you think about Vicky?" He asked them, only for Kwan to suddenly get up and walk away. "Kwan?" Danny called after him, but the Asain jock was already long gone.

"I dunno, I guess I'm sad," SpongeBob replied. "Nobody deserves to lose their parent like that."

"You don't think that would make her delusional, do you?"

"I think it could make you anything, nothing good."

"Do you feel safe here?" Danny asked. "I mean at the motel, as opposed to finding somewhere new."

"I think if we can get whoever is out there to leave us alone, this is a good place to be." SpongeBob sighed, looking out into the woods. "You know, they sort of stopped attacking, maybe they forgot about us."

"Or maybe someone convinced them we're worth more alive," Danny muttered, more to himself than anything else. "Do you have any chalk I can borrow?"

"No, don't the kids have some?" The blonde asked, slightly puzzled.

"I'll ask, thanks anyway." Danny smiled and walked away, not really sure what to do now. After he finished speaking to SpongeBob, Danny saw Timmy and Chester standing by the RV and motioned for Danny to go over to them.

"We found something," Timmy whispered when the teen approached them.

"What is it?"

"I found this piece of pink chalk and a scuff of it over by the gate!" Chester exclaimed, holding out the piece of pink chalk. Danny quickly went over to the gate, with the two boys following him, and some chalk scuff on the ground next to the gate. Pleased with themselves, Timmy and Chester high five each other and the tried to give Danny a high five, which he returned.

He investigated the chalk scuff and moved one of the dumpsters forward.

Somebody had been outside, recently by the look of it. He needed to go out there and look around.

"You stay here this time, seriously." He told the boys before moving one of the dumpsters and walking out the gate. Whoever it was, came out there to do something, but they came and went all the time, those scuff marks could have come from anything. Danny didn't want to create more paranoia, but he knew it was better safe than sorry, especially with the kids.

As he looked around he looked at the gate, which was littered with bullet and arrow holes.

He remembered back to the bandits and how they had started to give the group hell after they had escaped from the dairy. Danny guessed without the farm to carry on feeding them, they had to start looking but they have been quiet for days now. Danny was silently hoping they'd found a better target or had been killed by the increasing numbers of ghosts an infected in the forest.

As he continued looking up and down the sidewalk, he saw more pieces of pink chalk near a grate in the wall.

Danny bent down to pick up the chalk, only to notice an odd shape in the grate. He quickly opened the grate in the side of the wall and in the alcove behind the grate there was a brown paper bag. Danny carefully took the bag out and opened it, discovering that it was filled with medicine. Medicine the teen knew came from their supplies.

Danny's eyes widened when he realized this.

Vicky had been right all along. He quickly returned to Vicky's room and found the girl still sat on the bed, in the exact spot he'd last seen her, waiting for him.

"You haven't come up with anything, have you?" She sneered.

"I came up with this." He glared and tossed Vicky the bag he had recovered. "It's got a bunch of meds in it, it was in a grate on the outside wall and there's a sign on the other one." He explained.

"Holy fuck." She gasped before her expression went cold and enraged. "Okay, ee line everybody up." She stated. "Everybody! Somebody is killing us! Stealing from that supply is the same as slipping into your room at night and cutting your throat while you sleep! You die! What is the difference?! What if those brats get sick and we don't have what we need-"

Suddenly a flood of gunfire sounded outside...


	21. Blame Game

Suddenly a flood of rapid gunfire erupted from outside the room, followed by shouting and panic. Without even thinking twice, Danny grabbed his sword and ran out into the madness, panicking for Jimmy and Timmy's safety. He ran into the open and saw his group desperately trying to take cover and thankfully Jimmy and Timmy were hiding behind the RV with Chester, Tootie, and Mrs. Dinkleberg. The others were also behind cover, closer to the gate.

They were shooting at their attackers, but it didn't look good.

The bandits had finally infiltrated the motel. Danny looked back into the room and saw Vicky climbing out the bathroom window, out of sight. Before he could chase after her, however, the gunfire suddenly stopped and Danny looked back to see that one of the bandits had managed to grab Chester and hold him at gunpoint. The bandit leader motioned for the group to lower their guns, which they did. The bandits quickly lined everyone up on their knees with their hands behind their heads, guns pointed right at them.

Only Danny was left standing alone, his sword drawn to defend himself, not that it would do much good against a dozen guns.

"YOU MADE THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF YOUR LIVES!" The bandit leader roared.

"Take it easy," Danny said calmly. "Why are you doing this?"

"Why?! WHY?!" The leader laughed. "Because we gotta, that's why!"

"What will it take to reach a deal?" The teen asked.

"About twice as much as you've been giving us!" The leader snapped and that's when Danny realized; that was why the bandits hadn't been giving them any trouble the past few weeks, someone from the group must have made a deal with them and had given them some supplies.

"You got it." Danny nodded quickly, trying to save the lives of his group.

"Is that so?" The leader smirked. "Well...I suppose we oughta hash out some terms, then!" He laughed; only to suddenly get shot in the head, dead. Danny turned his head and was shocked to see Vicky standing there, rifle raised, having thinking she had run away after climbing out of the window. She must have just snuck around the back of the motor inn. The death of their leader flung the bandits into disarray, allowing their hostages to run away to safety.

Valerie grabbed her pistol and shot down two bandits before the gun ran out of ammo and she ran away.

Danny picked up one of the dead bandits' pistol and shot two other bandits to save Kwan as the remaining bandits started to climb over the wall. Danny tried to shoot the bandit, but he missed and the made it to the other side and whistled, alerting the other bandits to run out of the woods. More bandits fire at them and two of them moved the dumpsters from the gate as Danny hid behind the RV.

"Get back there! Smoke him out!" One of the bandits shouted. Not too far away Dash and Kwan, who were hiding behind a pile of furniture, tried to run over to the black and white-haired teen when a bandit suddenly fired at him but missed, hitting the window behind him. Both jocks quickly dived to the ground and returned to their previous hiding spot. Just then Bucky, who was holding a rifle, ran out of a motel room and joined Danny.

"We gotta get out of here!" The blonde man shouted.

"No shit!" Danny snapped as Bucky handed him the rifle.

"Get those bastards! Cover our people and get them to the RV!" He ordered before entering the RV. Danny quickly looked around for the others and saw Dash and Kwan were still crouched behind the furniture with Valerie and SpongeBob. Danny quickly shot several of the bandits, clearing the way for the four of them to run over to the RV.

"Man, you saved our asses!" Dash panted.

"Get inside!" Danny shouted and the four of them got into the RV as the bandits successfully moved the dumpster away from the gate. Danny desperately looked around for the others and saw the Dinklebergs and the kids crouched behind some furniture a little further away from the RV. They tried to move but were pinned down by heavy gunfire. Before Danny could think of a quick escape plan however, his stomach dropped when he heard a familiar growling.

All the shouting and gunfire had attracted a herb of infected straight out of the forest and they started to attack the bandits.

As the bandits hopelessly tried to escape the infected and kill Danny's group, the teen could hear the Dinklebergs desperately trying to calm the children down as they cried and panicked. Danny shot more bandits while the others tried to kill and avoid the infected, allowing the couple and kids to escape.

"Danny!" Timmy and Jimmy cried as the hugged the teen.

"Get inside the RV! It's gonna be okay, go!" He ordered and practically threw the boys into the RV with Tootie and Mr. Dinkleberg close behind. As Mrs. Dinkleberg and tried to run to Danny, however, a stray infected who had managed to weave past the bandits suddenly knocked them over and tried to bite them. Thinking quickly, Mrs. Dinkleberg swiftly pulled the boy to his feet and pushed him to Danny, who dragged the boy into the RV with the others.

Once Chester was safe Danny ran back out to save Mrs. Dinkleberg.

But he was too late. Within seconds the infected had grabbed her again and pulled the woman down to the ground, ripping into her skin with its teeth, spraying crimson blood everywhere. Hearing his wife's screams and seeing her attack through the RV windows, Mr. Dinkleberg tried to run to her aid but was quickly grabbed and subdued by SpongeBob and Kwan. Danny looked away from the gruesome scene and saw Vicky is still firing at the bandits from the balcony.

"Vicky! Get in the RV!" He shouted.

"Screw her! Let her stay!" Bucky snapped, still trying to start up the RV.

"No!" Tootie sobbed. Not willing to lose anyone else today, Valerie jumped out of the RV and drew her pistol. Crouching at the other end of the RV, she fired at the bandits as Danny did the same. At last, Bucky got the RV working and Valerie ran back inside.

"Vicky! Last chance! Get down here!" Danny roared as he backed up to the RV door.

"Shit." She hissed before running down and got into the RV just as Bucky drove away, killing several infected and breaking through the fence. After Danny locked the RV door, SpongeBob and Kwan finally released Mr. Dinkleberg. The now widow sobbed as he stumbled to the back of the vehicle and stared out the window at his wife's final resting place as they drove further away...

* * *

After the motor inn was no longer in sight, everyone went quiet, aside from Mr. Dinkleberg's sobs, and took seats in the RV, still trying to process what had just happened. In the space of about an hour, they had lost their home, most of their supplies, and one of their own. The only supplies they had now where what they had on their person or what Bucky had packed away in the RV. No one dared say a word, choosing instead to seat in silence.

While Bucky was driving, his son Chester was curled up in the front seat next to him, covered in ectoplasm.

SpongeBob, Mr. Dinkleberg, Dash, and Kwan were sat at the back, the latter with his head in his hands. Valerie was on her knees checking on the other three children as Vicky angrily paced around. Just then, Chester let out a pained groan and he curled further into himself.

"Jesus, are you, okay son?!" Bucky asked fearfully, constantly looking back and forth between his son and the road. That seemed to undo some kind of spell as everyone quickly found their voices again.

"Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit," Dash muttered to himself before looking up at the others. "I'm sorry."

"Calm down." SpongeBob soothed as he rubbed comforting circles into the teen's back.

"We just lost everything," Vicky growled.

"Well, we're lucky as shit to have this RV!" Bucky called from behind the wheel.

"Somebody in here caused this." The red-haired girl hissed as her wild eyes scanned the group.

"Settle down back there; the bandits have had our number for weeks!" Bucky reminded them impatiently.

"This is different, somebody was working with them." She replied, shocking the others. "Whoever it was was slipping them our meds, they didn't get their last package, so they attacked!

"That's nuts!" Kwan exclaimed.

"Danny found a bag of supplies hidden outside the wall!" Vicky argued and turned to the dark-haired teen.

"It's true." Danny sighed.

"So, Valerie, is there something you wanna say?" Vicky asked coldly to which she only scoffed at as Danny noticed an odd glint in the red-haired girl's eyes. "We have to get it out of you, then?"

"Back off." She warned.

"You're in no position to make demands." Vicky huffed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're just pointing fingers," SpongeBob called from the back.

"I didn't just come up with this, I've had my suspicions for days now!"

"Probably not the best time, Vicky!" Bucky glared.

"If not now, when? Look at what just happened!" She shouted.

"Valerie's trustworthy, she's not a traitor, Vicky," Danny argued, gaining a smile from the accused girl; something Vicky noticed immediately.

"She can fight her own battles; unless there's something going on here that implicates you both." She scowled.

"Don't be ridiculous." Valerie sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Why her? This seems like a stab in the dark, Vicky." Danny added.

"She's always SO eager to see what supplies we found, she never talks about her family, she could be related to those bastards, for all we know!"

"Whoa, my family's not a bunch of meth-riddled forest people!" Valerie shouted.

"You're not saying it wasn't you." She glared

"It wasn't ME!"

"Like, look, maybe we should, uh, vote, or something like that." Kwan nervously suggested.

"Vote? What?" Vicky laughed cruelly.

"Just, look, Valerie's a stand-up gal and maybe this was all just a mistake," Dash added.

"We need to look at the facts," SpongeBob stated calmly. "Let's calm down, we'll eat and we'll deal with it."

"Yeah, let's do that." Jimmy agreed.

"Stop waving the finger at everybody," Danny told the angry teen. "We know something's going on and we can get to the bottom of it if we keep our heads."

"I know what we found." She snarled.

"Nobody was stealing ANYTHING!" Dash cried.

"Was it both of you? Were all three of you in on it?" She suddenly asked the jocks. "I've seen you three together was it all three of you?!"

"Look, just let me out." Kwan pleaded. "We didn't do it, but I don't like this; I don't like where it's headed!" He cried but Vicky ignored his pleads and walked right over to him and leaned into his sweating face.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you didn't have anything to do with it." She glared.

"Lay off of him," Danny warned and went to pull her away from the Asain teen. Before anyone could do anything, however, the RV suddenly ran over something heavy that then got caught beneath it. Bucky let out a curse as the RV rocked slightly.

"What's going on up there?!" SpongeBob cried out as he gripped his seat tightly.

"I hit something, we gotta stop!" Bucky called as he began to slow the RV down and pulled over at the side of the road.

"Alright, well, we can deal with this now, then," Vicky smirked as she looked back and forth between Valerie, Dash, and Kwan.

"Bucky, is it safe?" Danny asked.

"Should be." The man replied as he got out of the driver's seat.

"Everybody out," Vicky ordered and everyone but the four children exited the RV. SpongeBob crouched down in front of the RV and saw a large infected man caught beneath the front wheels.

"Bucky, the RV has some surface damage but there's an infected trapped underneath." He said.

"Goddamn it, everyone, keep your eyes peeled," Bucky said as he went round to the front of the vehicle and he tried to pull the infected out, only to curse when he saw it was ripped in half. While Bucky was dealing with the infected, the rest of the teenagers and adults gathered around near the door where Jimmy, Timmy, and Tootie were watching them.

"You know what, we shouldn't just kick you out, we should hear what everybody thinks." Vicky jeered at the three accused.

"I think you should chill out," Danny warned.

"I'm not gonna take this." Valerie hissed. "You can push everyone else around but you can't push me around!"

"I'm really sorry you feel that way." She replied with an icy tone. "I'm starting to think maybe it really was all three of you."

"No!" Dash defended.

"Dash, you have no other options here." Vicky huffed in annoyance. "You or Kwan can tell me it was someone else and then everything will be right as rain; don't you think so too, Danny?"

"I'm not doing this." Danny glared as he crossed his arms.

"Come on, Danny, you're the one who found them, you can't just abstain." The red-haired girl scowled.

"Fuck all that; this is nuts." He exclaimed. "We're out here in the open on the side of the road!"

"Okay, fine, then, Bucky?" Vicky asked the man, who was still trying to get the Infected free without getting bitten.

"I don't know! Fuck! Just stop, would ya?!" He shouted in irritation.

"We don't need all these VOTES! What do I have to do for you to TRUST me? I'll do ANYTHING! I'll- I'll do watches for months!" Kwan offered in desperation.

"Ha, the HELL you will." She scoffed.

"I'll get more food, more medicine, anything!" Dash pleaded.

"You think any of that is good now?!"

"JUST LET US STAY, PLEASE! GOD, PLEASE!" Kwan cried as he and Dash practically feel to their knees begging.

"You're pathetic, look at you." Vicky jeered as SpongeBob and Valerie pulled the jocks back to their feet. "Do we need any more evidence than this?!"

"Evidence or not, this isn't any way to treat one of us!" SpongeBob argued.

"Bucky!" She shouted, ignoring the others' protests. "What's it gonna be?"

"Just gimme a damn minute!"

"You three have until that infected is dealt with to give me a name." She warned.

"Stop this! You're going crazy!" Valerie exclaimed.

"This is about trust, and I've never trusted you." She snarled at the dark-skinned teen.

"I did it." Danny suddenly lied, hoping it would take all the pressure off the others.

"What?" Vicky scoffed in disbelief. "I think you're capable of being a real piece of shit, but I know it wasn't you, not with those two in your life." She said and looked at Jimmy, Timmy, and Tootie, who were all now standing at the doorway of the RV. Finally, Bucky managed to pull the infected out from under the front wheels.

"Please, let's just get back in the RV." Mr. Dinkleberg whimpered, barely above a whisper.

"That's not happening." Vicky glared.

"I can't handle this!" SpongeBob exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air and made to get back into the RV with the kids and Mr. Dinkleberg.

"You think you're some tough bitch, don't you?" Valerie suddenly said, glaring daggers at Vicky. "Like nothing can hurt you, but you're just a scared little girl, get the fuck over it; take a page from Danny's book and try helping somebody for once." She mocked as Bucky stomped on the infected's head, killing it. He then approached the group.

"Now, what the fuck's the problem?" He angrily asked them.

***BANG***

Before anyone could fathom what had just happened, Valerie Grey suddenly collapsed, dead, to the forest ground, a gaping bullet hole in her cheek. The kids started screaming at the sight of the blood gushing from her face as the adults looked up and were horrified to see a literal smoking gun in Vicky's hand. Instant Danny grabbed her wrists and pushed her against the side of the RV.

"DROP IT!" He roared, scaring Vicky to death. She had never seen the boy so angry in the few months she had been with him. Shaking, she quickly let the gun fall from her hand onto the ground.

"CHRIST! GET IN!" Bucky shouted. "We're leaving this crazy bitch!"

"NO PLEASE!" Tootie sobbed as Jimmy and Timmy stopped her from running out the safety of the RV. Danny looked at the small girl and his heart ached for her, it really did. He knew Vicky was dangerously unstable, but Tootie needed her. There was no way he would allow that little girl to lose the only blood-relative she had alive in this world.

"Just get in." He sighed as he slowly let go of her wrist. "We'll figure out what to do with you."

"That's a bad idea, Danny!" Bucky warned. "She's a murderer, for shit's sake!"

"I'm a murderer?! You've had Danny with you this whole time!" She cried and Danny's blood went cold.

"What are you talking about?" Bucky asked.

"He didn't tell you?" She glared. "His family are the cause of all of this! The Fentons were experimenting on ghosts and they must have gotten free and invaded the world!" She explained, shocking everyone. "Where did you think Valerie got all her anti-ghost weapons?! She raided the Fentons' lab! His family has more blood on their heads than any of us combined!"

"Is that true?" Bucky glared at the boy in question.

"I- I don't know." He admitted sadly. "Yes my parents were experimenting with ghosts but before all of this happened we got into a huge fight and they attacked me; my big sister and two best friends helped me escape town and just as I got into Dimmsdale all this shit happened!"

"I knew I recognized you from somewhere!" Kwan gasped.

"You're Danny Fenton! The Fentons' missing son! You used to go to our school! What happened to your hair dude?" Dash exclaimed.

"Fucking hell, were you ever gonna get around to telling me that?!" Bucky shouted. "You've got two kids with you! I've let you look after my son!"

"Danny isn't responsible for his parents' actions!" SpongeBob defended his young friend. "And let's not forget that he's saved our lives time and time again! If he really was a monster don't you think he'd have just left Timmy and Jimmy back in Dimmsdale instead of protecting them like he has?" He added and everyone froze in thought. After a few moments of silent debate, Bucky sighed.

"To hell with it." He growled. "I don't want to hear it, from either of you; just get in." He glared at Vicky and Danny before climbing back into the RV. Danny gave Valerie's body a sad look before joining the others...


	22. Full Steam Ahead

Once everyone got back into the RV, Bucky quickly drove away from Valerie's dead body, leaving her at the side of the road. As they drove away, Danny quickly tied Vicky's hands tightly behind her back and tossed her gun on the table in front of SpongeBob, who was sat across from her with Tootie, Mr. Dinkleberg, Dash, and Kwan. Danny gave SpongeBob a stern look, indicating that he should keep an eye on her and shoot her if she tries anything.

The blonde man fearfully took the pistol and pointed it at Vicky.

"Danny, a word?" Bucky called coldly from the driver's seat. The black and white-haired teen took a deep breath before he went to the front of the RV. He saw Bucky glaring at the road and Chester was still curled up in the seat next to his father.

"What's up? Is Chester feeling alright?" He asked when he saw how much paler the boy was. Bucky sighed as he reached a handover and lifted up Chester's shirt to reveal a bite on his stomach.

"What the fuck..." Danny gasped.

"Happened during the raid," Bucky replied.

"What's the plan? We've never had a bite victim in the group before." The teen asked sadly.

"I'm going to keep an eye on him and see what I can do, but we keep the same plan unless something changes; east." The father glared.

"Bucky..."

"What else is there to do?!" He snapped, before letting out a sigh. "I thought you should know; not that you've ever afforded us that type o' luxury." He glared and Danny just stayed quiet. "Anyway, if you could tell the kids, I would appreciate it." He said. Danny nodded before stepping away. He took a seat in between Jimmy and Timmy and put his arms around them. The two boys didn't say anything as they snuggled into their guardian's embraced.

"Chester is bitten." He quietly said to the boys so no one would hear.

"Huh?" Jimmy muttered in shock and sadness.

"He got bit by an infected trying to escape the motel." He explained.

"I don't feel good." Timmy whimpered, close to tears at the thought of losing so many friends in such a short amount of time. "What about Valerie?"

"There's nothing to say." Danny sighed. "It's horrible."

"I'm sorry." The pink hatted boy said.

"No." Danny quickly stopped him. "You don't apologize; you had nothing to do with it, squirt." He smiled, reassuring the boys. "I'm glad I have you both."

"Me, too." Jimmy smiled.

"I heard you outside my treehouse that day and thought about dropping a hammer on your head." Timmy suddenly said, catching Danny off guard and causing Jimmy to roll his eyes.

"What? Why?" Danny asked.

"In case you were up to no good." The bucktoothed boy shrugged.

"Before you, there was this other guy," Jimmy added. "He was yelling and trying to get into the house, I think he wanted to take the TV or something and tried to break the glass door with a rock, then some walkers came and scared him away."

"Well, the door wasn't locked when I got there."

"He was dumb." Timmy chuckled weakly, before sighing. Within a few moments, both boys had fallen asleep against the teen's skinny shoulders. Danny smiled before leaning his head back and letting his mind wander for a bit. After several moments of silence, Jimmy and Timmy both started groaning and Danny looked at them, thinking they were having a nightmare. They looked up at him, but the teen was given a horrifying shock to see that they were both infected.

They both suddenly attacked Danny and he tried to push them away.

"What happened?! HOLY SHIT! GET OFF OF ME!" He cried out desperately, only for the boys to overpower him and both took a bite out of the sides on his neck...

* * *

Danny suddenly woke up with a start and saw Jimmy and Timmy next to him, still asleep and very much alive and un-infected. He quickly realized that it was all a terrifying nightmare. As he took several breaths to slow his racing heart, he saw the dim morning sun shining through the trees and wondered how long he'd been asleep.

The RV was still moving so he assumed Bucky hadn't slept, as he was still driving.

He saw Tootie asleep in a sleeping bag on the floor, SpongeBob, Dash, and Kwan had also fallen asleep in the back seat. Mr. Dinkleberg had taken over guarding Vicky, both looking like they hadn't gotten any sleep.

"We got something up ahead." Bucky suddenly called to them, waking everyone up but the kids. Danny carefully got up and leaned Timmy and Jimmy against each other as they slept before going up to the front of the RV.

"Damn it! The road's blocked, now we gotta deal with this shit." Bucky growled as he stopped the RV in front of a railroad crossing with a train stopped in the middle of the tracks. The train and one of the boxcars were still on the tracks but the rest of the boxcars behind it were badly rerailed. Danny, Bucky, and Kwan got out of the RV and approached it.

"Is there any way to get around it," Kwan asked.

"Doesn't look like it." Bucky shrugged. "On foot, maybe, can't really afford to do that now."

"This seems like a safe area," Danny said as he looked around. "All this brush will stop anything from creeping up on us."

"I'd like everyone out of the RV except her," Bucky said, frowning at the thought of Vicky. "I don't want folks trapped in there with her." He added and the three men went to get everybody out. Jimmy and Timmy stepped out of the RV, wearing their backpacks, as Mr. Dinkleberg, SpongeBob and Dash carried the rest of their supplies out, not wanting to leave their weapons, or anything else alone with Vicky.

Tootie gave her sister a sad look before she left, but she refused to look up from her own shoes.

Bucky held Chester's hand as they both climb out of the RV as well.

"Why don't you and I go look around?" SpongeBob suggested to Danny.

"Yeah, everyone else try to relax," Danny said and turned to the boys. "Stay close to Bucky and Chester, okay?

"Be careful in there," Bucky said as he gave Chester some water from his bag.

"What, you think there might be something dangerous inside of an abandoned locomotive? Hadn't crossed my mind." He replied sarcastically before he and SpongeBob headed off to inspect the train cars. Tootie, Mr. Dinkleberg, Kwan, Dash, and Bucky, cradling Chester in his arms, sat down on some logs nearby the train as Jimmy and Timmy set their backpacks down next to them.

As Danny and SpongeBob checked the main train, Danny found four-engine compartments.

He opened up the first engine compartment and found a switch inside. He used the switch but sighed when nothing happened. He opened the second and found a spike remover, a spanner, and a wrench. Making a note of this, he closed it back up and checked the other two, only to find nothing inside. He looked inside the train and saw a man sat slumped over in the conductor seat.

The front window was badly cracked and caked in blood.

Danny motioned to SpongeBob and pointed out the man. From where they were standing, they couldn't tell if the man was dead or if he was infected. Deciding it was better to be safe than sorry, Danny carefully pulled out his sword before opening the door and stepping inside. Without hesitation, he plunged the blade into the man's chest, destroying his heart.

The man, however, didn't even twitch or dissolve into goo.

His brain or heart must have been destroyed before he became infected. Danny carefully lifted the man out of the chair and paused when he saw half the man's skull was flattened. His head must have slammed against the windshield when the train derailed. Noticing a blinking button on the controls, Danny cautiously pressed it and the train suddenly squealed, startling everyone outside.

It must have been the control for the brakes.

"This fucker works?" Bucky asked with a smiled as he entered the train car.

"Seems like it." Danny smiled as Bucky sat in the front seat.

"I'll be damned." He laughed. "How the hell do we get it movin'?"

"I don't know, any ideas SpongeBob?"

"No clue." SpongeBob gagged as he dragged the body away.

"Well, let's look around, maybe it goes somewhere we'd like to be," Bucky instructed as SpongeBob returned after disposing of the corpse. "SpongeBob, if you could keep an eye on the others, I'd appreciate it, I'm going to make sense of these controls." He said as he turned back to the controls and SpongeBob left. "Man, this could be exactly what we need."

As Bucky examined the controls, Danny began looking around for an instruction book of some kind.

He found a photograph of the deceased engineer with supposedly his wife, and two children and a map bin with a bunch of maps about the nearby cities but nothing about the train. Danny turned his attention to the console but couldn't make sense of the dozens of buttons, switches, and dials attached to it. Thinking maybe there was something in the other cars, Danny left the front train car.

He looked at the RV and thought about Vicky.

Even though she killed Valerie, she was still a human being and deserved the same rights as anyone else. Deciding to check on her, Danny entered the RV and found the red-haired teenage girl in the same spot they had left her in. As soon as she saw him, however, she scowled and looked away, almost as if in disgust. Danny simply sighed and stepped closer.

"Come to gloat?" She snarled. "I'm sitting here, tied up like an animal, while you guys decide what to do with me."

"It's not like that." He tried to say.

"Then what's it like?" She huffed, but he didn't know the words.

"I just came here to see if you needed anything." He sighed in defeat.

"Some water would be nice." She jeered and he nodded. He quickly ran out to grab a bottle of water before rushing back into the RV. When Danny returned, however, he was shocked to see that Vicky had freed herself.

"What're you doing?" He asked, stunned.

"I'm leaving." She snarled before her expression softened slightly. "Come with me, you, me, Tootie, and the twerps, we could take the RV right now, that dumbass Bucky left the keys in it." She explained.

"No way." He glared; he would never betray his friends like that and besides if there was no way to move the train he wasn't about to leave the others out in the woods with no reliable vehicle.

"Didn't think you would say yes." She shrugged.

"I can't let you take the RV, don't be crazy."

"You're not 'letting' me take it. She laughed before suddenly pushing him out of the RV. Before he could get to his feet, she was already behind the wheel and quickly drove off, abandoning the group and her own sister. Tootie watched in shock as Danny and the others tried to chase after her but it was hopeless as she disappeared into the distance.

Hearing the commotion, Bucky ran outside and was stunned to see the RV gone.

"Come back here, you crazy bitch! FUCK! STOP!" He bellowed, even though it was impossible for her to hear him.

"Let's focus on the train," Danny growled in the direction she escaped from.

"Well, we're fucked if we don't figure out how this thing works!" Bucky shouted. "We can't spend the night out here, Chester's still sick, you know; we need to get to Bikini Bottom, to the coast."

"I'm sorry about the RV," Danny replied. "Keeping her was my call, this one's on me."

"The radiator is fucking hosed in that thing, so she won't make it thirty miles, we've also got all the weapons and supplies, she's as good as dead out there." Bucky glared. "We figure this train out, maybe it turns out she did us a favor." He sighed before going back into the front of the to work on the controls again. Wasting no time, Danny went to inspect the boxcar and was shocked to find a mattress, a lawn chair, and other miscellaneous items scattered about.

Somebody had been living in here.

It appeared that they were gone though as Danny saw a pool of blood next to the mattress. After a moment of silence, Danny began to look around and found a clipboard on the ground with a map on it. Danny picked up the map and saw that it was a map of where the train goes. These tracks might lead to the coast. He examined the map and saw Route 27, Bikini Bottom.

That's where Bucky was taking them.

Danny smiled and quickly ran to the front of the train where he found Bucky still trying to figure out how to start the train.

"I found this in the boxcar back here." He said as he gave Bucky the map.

"Whoa, is this what it looks like?" He smiled gleefully and Danny nodded with a smile of his own. "This hoss will take us right to Bikini Bottom! A hundred tons of steel; put a thousand walkers between us and the ocean and we don't have to give a shit! I can't believe it!"

"We just have to figure out how to get it started."

"I'm sure we can figure it out, how tough could it be?" Bucky shrugged.

"No idea, but we'll find out."

"That's the spirit." He smirked.

"What about Chester?" Danny asked nervously.

"What about him?" Bucky asked firmly, almost threateningly.

"We can't act like nothing's happened to him."

"We can't act like he's dead, either." He glared. "Try to get this thing started, there's gotta be some sort of...manual or somethin'." He growled. Danny decided it was probably best not to say anything else and he began to look around for some kind of instructions to the train engine. Just then, he noticed a clipboard on the ground where SpongeBob had dragged the dead man away.

He must have had it on him.

Danny picked it up and nearly jumped for joy when he saw it was a heck list for starting up the engine. Quickly, he headed back over to the console full of buttons, switches, and dials and followed the list's instructions to the letter. Suddenly everything instantly lit up and there was dull rumbling, signaling that the engine was running.

Bucky smiled and tried to make the train move now that the engine was running.

The train crept forward a few centimeters before it suddenly jolted to a halt.

"Shit! We still got the rest of the train attached to us back there." Bucky growled as Danny ran out to see if there anything he could do to get them unstuck from the derailed train cars. Remembering the tools he had found in the engine compartments, he went over to them and grabbed the wrench. He went around to the back of the train car still on the tracks and saw they were still attached to derailed ones thanks to the rusting coupler pin.

That wasn't going to be easy to remove.

Never the less, Danny took a deep breath to prepare himself for the struggle before he tried to pry the coupler pin free with the wrench; shocked and slightly amazed when he detached it. Hearing the loud clanking of the pin dropping, Bucky ran out to check on the teen, fearing the worst had happened.

"Hey, Bucky, we're loose!" He called as he panted from the effort. Bucky smiled and went over to the group.

"Gather what you have and let's go." He ordered and everyone gathered up all their supplies and walked over to the train. Noticing Chester was struggling to get up, Mr. Dinkleberg carefully picked the boy up, almost cradling him. He examined the small blonde boy, only to take a step back after noticing how pale and sickly he had become in just a few hours.

He turned to Chester's father, but he gave the man a stern look.

Not sure what to say, Mr. Dinkleberg said nothing and went to hop into the boxcar. Tootie, however, wasn't so considerate.

"Chester's sick." She quietly said to Bucky.

"Get on the train, Tootie." The father glared and she quickly obeyed and joined the others on the train.

"He is getting sicker," Danny said once he and Bucky were alone, but the man stayed silent. "We can't ignore this, look at the kid, Bucky, this is happening."

"Ain't shit happening and if it were, what can we do here? We get on the train and we find something better; THAT is the plan!"

"I just want to talk it through.

"It's TALKED THROUGH!" Bucky shouted. "Get on, I'll be upfront and I don't want to hear any nonsense until we get where we're goin'" He growled and stormed off to the front of the train. Danny sighed and entered the train cab with the others. Once everyone was on board, Bucky used the throttle and the train moved forward along, to parts unknown...


	23. Train Tragedy

No one spoke as the train steamed through the forest at nearly forty miles per hour. The boxcar door was open so they all got a good look at the blurring forest zooming past them. Everyone except Bucky was sat in the boxcar. Dash and Kwan were huddled in the far corner, seemingly whispering about something, about what Danny really didn't care to know. Mr. Dinkleberg and SpongeBob were sat in the other corner, cradling an even paler Chester McBadbat.

Jimmy, Timmy, and Tootie were sat in front of the open boxcar door, just watching the world go by.

Though her eyes were looking to the outside, Tootie's mind was elsewhere. She couldn't stop thinking about her sister. She couldn't understand why her sister would leave her now, so soon after they had just lost their mother, it just didn't make sense. Danny stood behind them, just in case the train jolted and they ended up nearly falling out. That seemed very unlikely but the teen needed something to take his mind off the sick child in the corner.

By now they all notice Chester's worsening condition.

No one needed to say what it was. They all already had a good idea of what was wrong with him, they just didn't want to say it. Bucky, however, seemed hellbent on ignoring his son's worsening condition and shut down anyone who dared to try and talk about it. Danny knew it was hard to lose a loved one, especially if it was your only child. However, he couldn't help but think that Bucky was being incredibly selfish at ignoring his son's clear pain and distress.

Suddenly Chester started coughing and, to everyone's shock, he coughed up blood and ectoplasm.

"DANNY! I need you! Right now! I need you to go get Bucky!" SpongeBob cried as Danny ran over and Mr. Dinkleberg picked up a rag on the floor and wiped the blood and glowing green goo off Chester's face.

"He's out of time, we need to stop this train." Mr. Dinkleberg said as tears welled up in his eyes.

"Okay." Danny nodded before going over to the other three kids and pulling them away from the open boxcar door. "I'm gonna go get Bucky, hold on tight in case the train stops fast." He instructed before exiting the boxcar and, with a heavy heart, entering the cab. Bucky was still sat in the conductor's seat, not even acknowledging the teen's presence.

"What'd you want?" He finally asked coldly.

"You need to stop the train," Danny told him as strongly as he could manage. "Chester needs you."

"My boy will be fine," Bucky repeated for the hundredth time, almost as if saying it enough time would make it true. "Go back there and tell the others everything will be fine; what is the goddamn deal? He's a little sick, but we can't just quit! It's a scratch! He's not like the others! Jesus, all y'all are just makin' it worse!" He shouted desperately.

"This isn't about Chester."

"It's not about my son dying? The hell do you know? You're not my friend! You're just a bratty teenage runaway who's fucking parents are to blame for all this goddamn bullshit!"

"How many sons are you going to let die?" Danny angrily exclaimed.

"Shut your mouth!" Bucky snarled as he got up and tried to punch the black and white-haired teen, only for his to effortlessly block the attack. Before Bucky could throw another punch, Danny quickly pushed and held him against the wall and put his arm against his throat, nearly choking him.

"I told SpongeBob I'd get you to stop this and you bet your ass I'm gonna!"

"LET GO OF ME DAMN IT!" He roared as he tried to wrestle out of Danny's iron grip.

"I've had your back, Bucky, what you're goin' through now is hell on earth and you need your friends." He replied as calmly as possible. "You're not a bad man, fuck, that doesn't even mean anything anymore, a man isn't bad... a man just is." He sighed as he let Bucky go. "All we can do is take care of who we have and keep moving forward; now, let's stop the train." He pleaded. Bucky gasped for breath as if he had just run a marathon.

The two stared at each other in a tense silence and for a moment Danny feared he hadn't gotten through to the man.

However, a few seconds later Bucky slumped in defeat and pulled the throttle, bring the train to a sudden stop. He and Danny stepped out of the cab and go to the boxcar, where Chester was lying on the steel floor with SpongeBob nearby.

"It's...I think it's time." SpongeBob said sadly to the father.

"The boy's been bit, in case you haven't figured that out." Bucky glared at the others in the boxcar. The two jocks and crossed their arms, and Mr. Dinkleberg look sadly at the sick boy.

"Take as long as you need," Danny told his friend

"There ain't no time left to take." Bucky quietly replied, not taking his eyes of his son. "But what if... What if he doesn't become one of those things?" He asked, desperately trying to cling to false hope. Danny took a deep breath, trying to stop the tears welling up in his blue eyes, before placing a firm hand on Bucky's shoulder and making the man look at him.

"Bucky, I know you lobe your son more than life itself but I need you to hear me." He said clearly. "What you are saying, that he may not turn, is foolish."

"But-"

"No."

"There's...come on, Danny..." The blonde man pleaded as a lump began to form in his throat. "Isn't there some sort of pill, or something we can just give him? He can just drift off to sleep, right? I mean, Jesus, this is my son!" He cried as heavy tears started to roll down heds cheeks.

"I know." Danny nodded sympathetically. "But we know it's... here or nothing." He reminded and he points to Chester's head and chest, just above his heart.

"Well...fuck...just...who, then? Do you want me to?" The father sobbed.

"I'll do it," Danny said in a voice steadier than he really felt. "No parent should ever have to do something like this."

"I don't know... Danny, you'd be doing this family a great service." He sniffed as he gently picked up his son and cradled him close. "Why don't we take him into the forest? So the others don't have to see."

"Good idea." Danny sighed.

"Give us a moment to say goodbye." Bucky sobbed before slowly going into the forest and disappearing into the trees. Danny watched them go before grabbing the gun SpongeBob offered him and turning to the kids, all three looking very distressed.

"What's happening?" Jimmy asked their guardian.

"I'm going to take care of Chester." He replied.

"I thought he was going to die?" Tootie asked, causing Danny to flinch slightly.

"I'm going to make sure he's okay."

"But how? He's bitten." Timmy pointed out sadly.

"By making sure he doesn't come back." He replied honestly before pulling all three of them into a warm, comforting embrace. "Look, guys, things will be alright, I promise." He said before standing up and walking into the forest towards the direction Bucky had taken Chester. He found them just beyond the treeline. Bucky had leaned his son against a large tree. Chester was still alive but his skin was almost grey, his breathing was very labored and his eyes were half-open.

It was clear he didn't have long left.

Bucky held his little boy's almost lifeless body and cried. Danny waited for a few moments before placing a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. Bucky sniffed as he brushed his hand over Chester's face to close his eyes before slowly stepping back. The boy didn't have the energy or the time to open them again. Danny took a deep breath and raised the gun. Not wanting Chester or Bucky's suffering to continue, he aimed for the head and fired.

Chester slumped over as he blood and ectoplasm covered to the tree he was leaned against.

Bucky sobbed loudly as he watched his only child's death and Danny tried to pull him into a hug, but the man angrily shoved the teen away from his and stormed back to the train. Danny gave Chester's body one last sad look before following the grieving father out of the forest...


	24. Be Prepared

As soon as Danny and Bucky returned from the forest, everyone silently got back on the train and they start moving again. Danny sighed as he handed the gun back to SpongeBob and looked around for the others. SpongeBob and the kids were still in the boxcar while Dash and Kwan were standing on the back of the train car with Mr. Dinkleberg on the front.

Bucky had returned to the conductor's chair but no one dared disturb him now.

Before he sat down, however, Danny noticed the kids sitting on the edge of the boxcar, Timmy fiddling with his walkie-talkie while Jimmy and Tootie looked very upset about something. Believing they were thinking about Chester, Danny sat next to them, hoping to ease their fears.

"You want to talk?" He asked them nervously, not sure what to say, but they all shook their heads. "You understand what happened back there, right?"

"Yes." Jimmy sighed and the other two nodded in agreement.

"Okay, what are you thinking about?"

"What Mr. Dinkleberg said," Tootie said quietly, almost as if she was afraid the man would hear her.

"What'd he say?"

"That what happened to Chester and AJ would happen to us." Timmy glared, not looking up from his walkie-talkie, and Danny saw red.

"The fuck he did." The teen snarled.

"Swear." Tootie quickly scolded and he blushed.

"Sorry, I'm just gonna go talk some sense into him." He replied as he stood up but Jimmy grabbed his wrist.

"Don't be mad." He pleaded, but Danny pulled his wrist free and gave SpongeBob a look that said watch the kids before he went outside to join Mr. Dinkleberg at the front of the train.

"I don't care what reasons you had for doing it, no reason to go and tell those kids they're gonna end up dead!" He angrily exclaimed before the widow had a chance to blink

"'Cause they are." He replied as he kept his gaze on the tracks ahead of them. "I don't know much these days, but I can tell you, sure as the sun's going to come up tomorrow, that you all keep going on like this and those children ain't gonna make it."

"What do you know?" He snapped.

"I know that you don't have a goddamn plan." He glared. "We get to Bikini Bottom and then what? I know Bucky was dead set on finding a boat, but do you think that's a new idea? You got even the foggiest idea about where we're gonna find one of those?"

"We do what's best for the kids."

"Oh! Well, then! You do have it all figured out! Never mind." He jeered before sighing and turning to the steaming teen. "Look, sit down with the kids and hash it out, find a map for Christ's sake, and if something were to happen to you..."

"It won't."

"If it WERE, you gotta prepare them." He said. "Teach them to use a weapon, and for criminy, cut that girl's hair."

"A weapon Like a gun? Are you kidding me?" He asked in disbelief.

"What? They're too young to handle one? There ain't too young, not anymore." He scoffed. "You gotta consider them as living people, that's it, you're either living or you're not; you ain't little, you ain't a girl, you ain't a boy, you ain't strong or smart, you're alive."

"I... guess."

"Look at Tootie's hair, how do you think I lost my wife? You got her running around with a mop that's gonna act like velcro to any hands swingin' its way; find some scissors in my pack and take care of that hair before an infected does it for you and then show those boys how to use a gun, because like it or not, that's what saves your life from here on out." He explained.

"Okay." Danny sighed, whether he liked it or not, Mr. Dinkleberg was making some valid points.

"We've still got Valerie's bag of anti-Ghost weapons in the boxcar with the other stuff, explain to them how they work and not to be afraid." He added with a sad look in his eyes. "I don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but too many people have died already..."

"They have." Danny nodded. "A plan, a haircut, and a weapon; it's good advice.

"It's something." He shrugged and Danny headed back to the boxcar to talk to the kids. He noticed Dash and Kwan were whispering about something again but as soon as they saw him they instantly went quiet and looked out to the passing forest. The skinnier teen simply shrugged it off and was about to enter the boxcar when Kwan suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

"It was us." He blurted out.

"Kwan?!" Dash gasped but his friend just glared at him.

"No Dash! I'm tired of keeping it a secret, what's the fucking point anymore?!" He cried before looking back at a confused Danny. "We were the one giving the bandits supplies."

"WHAT?!" Danny exclaimed. "What for? Why the hell would you do this?!"

"They said they had Ms. Tetslaff, that she was with them!" Dash quickly replied. "By the time e realized they didn't, it was too late... they said they'd kill us, kill all of us!"

"We're sorry," Kwan added, really looking regretful, and Danny's eyes softened.

"You got anything else you wanna say?" He asked them after a moment.

"No," Dash admitted.

"Good." He sighed. "You can never tell Bucky or Mr. Dinkleberg, you understand?"

"But-"

"Do NOT!" He shouted. "If you two hadn't sold us out to the bandits, they never would've attacked, Mrs. Dinkleberg wouldn't have died and Chester never would've been bitten; they'll kill you." He warned. He stood there until he was sure they got the message before heading back into the boxcar. Upon seeing him, the boys and SpongeBob smiled while Tootie kept her gaze to the ground.

"Did you talk to him?" She asked, almost coldly, as Danny sat down beside them.

"I did, he had some, uh...he explained himself and made some good points." He admitted. "Look, we're not going to let anything bad happen to any of you, but there are some precautions we have to take."

"Okay, yeah, that makes sense," Jimmy replied.

"Okay, what should we do?" Timmy asked nervously.

"Well, we're gonna figure out a plan for when we get to Bikini Bottom, teach you all how to protect yourselves, and, uh, tidy you up a little so you can't get grabbed so easily." He explained.

"I'd like that." Timmy shrugged.

"Good." Danny smiled before he got up and began searching for some scissors and some small weapons for them to train with. He eventually found the bag of weapons along with a pair of large scissors. He pulled out two pistols and a crossbow. They were the only weapons in their supply that were roughly the right size for the kids to use.

"What are you doing with those?" SpongeBob asked when Danny walked back over to them with the weapons.

"You three need to know how to protect yourselves." He replied as the kids stood up.

"Like hiding or running away?" Tootie asked.

"I mean with one of these." He said as he handed her and Timmy a gun each and Jimmy the crossbow. "First, don't be afraid of it, it's just a thing, but know where your finger is all the time and don't put it on the trigger unless you want to hurt somebody."

"Okay." Jimmy gulped as they carefully gripped the weapons.

"See, it's not scary." Danny smiled after a few tense seconds while SpongeBob glared at him.

"It's heavy." Timmy frowned as he adjusted his grip on the gun.

"You'll get stronger." The teen said as he set up a line of empty cans and bottles on some boxes at the far end of the boxcar and stood behind the kids. "To aim, you look right down the top, through that notch, line up the sight at the end with your target."

"Is there anything else we should know?" Jimmy asked nervously as they aimed for the targets.

"I know these are just bottles and cans, but you have to aim for the head or heart, the head's a much easier target." He explained. "Unless it's not an infected or ghost and it's someone trying to hurt you."

"And then?" Timmy asked.

"Head or body."

"I don't wanna think about that." Tootie whimpered.

"I know, but I'm afraid you'll have to sooner or later." SpongeBob sighed sadly.

"You ready?" Danny asked, wanting to get this over and done with as soon as possible, and all three nodded. "Okay, Jimmy, let's take the first shot, squeeze the trigger smoothly; nice and easy."

"Nice and easy," Jimmy muttered before firing an arrow only for it to miss. Not discouraged, he simply ran some quick math in his head and adjusted his aim before firing again, this time sticking an arrow into an old can. He did this on two more targets and didn't miss a shot.

"Good shot Jim." Danny smiled before turning to Timmy. "Your turn squirt." He said and the bucktoothed boy took a breath as he stepped forward and cocked the gun before taking aim.

"When you're ready to shoot, make sure you're not breathing too hard, and then hold your breath right when you pull the trigger," SpongeBob explained as he got behind the boy to cover his ears.

"Like when I'm swimming?" He asked.

"No, just for a quick second." The blonde man chuckled. "I found that if I did that I was a lot more accurate." He added as he covered Timmy's ears with his hands.

"I can do that," Timmy replied as he looked right down the top and aimed for three glass bottles in front of him. He stood there for a second before firing three shots, all of them shattering their targets. Danny and SpongeBob just stood there in shock, they had never met anyone, let alone a child with that pinpoint accuracy with a loaded gun.

"You- You did it, good job." Danny grinned when he finally recovered his voice.

"Thanks!" Timmy giggled, very pleased with himself, as he went to go stand beside Jimmy and Tootie stepped forward.

"You ready?" The teen asked when he saw she was shocking.

"I... t-think so." She stuttered as she aimed her gun and SpongeBob covered her ears. She quickly fired the gun but missed the target. SpongeBob tried to help her adjust her aim but she missed again. This happened a few more times until Danny decided they were wasting bullets and took the gun off her, saying they would try again some other time.

He figured she was probably still shaken up at losing her sister, Valerie, Mrs. Dinkleberg, and Chester in one day.

"I just pretended they were infected's heads or ghosts." Jimmy offered when she sat with him and Timmy.

"They're not monsters, though." She mumbled.

"No, far from it, but you know how these things work now," Danny explained as he took the weapons back and put them away. "We'll graduate you all to ghosts and infected one day." He joked.

"It wasn't too scary right?" SpongeBob asked them but they shook their heads.

"My hands hurt and my ears have noise in them, like eeeeee," Timmy whined as he rubbed his ears.

"That's probably just the tiny coils in your tiny brain trying to turn." Jimmy laughed as Timmy gave him a shove.

"You'll get used to it." Danny chuckled before he knelt in front of Tootie. "So, you're probably not gonna like this." He told her nervously.

"Oh, no, what happened?" She whimpered.

"Nothing bad." He quickly reassured her. "We have to talk about your hair, it's not safe."

"That's not nice." She glared.

"What?"

"Are you saying it smells? Because it does, kinda." Timmy pointed, only to get glares from the others.

"What I'm saying is that it's getting too long and if it an infected grabbed it, well..." He trailed off, not wanting to think about that. "We need to trim it."

"Just a trim, right?" She asked, nervously looking at the large scissors in the teen's hand.

"I need to cut it short enough so that it can't get grabbed."

"Okay." She sighed and turned around so Danny had better access to her hair. "Do you know how to do this?"

"No idea, I'm not much of a stylist, you know?" He replied as he began cutting as carefully as he could.

"I'm going to look like a boy." She scowled.

"But think how much safer you'll be." SpongeBob smiled.

"I'd rather be dead." She huffed.

"Don't talk like that." Danny scolded, a little too harshly. Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes until Danny finished his barber attempt. Tootie's hair was definitely shorter and safer but it was very clear that it wasn't done by a professional.

"How... How is it?" She asked as Jimmy and Timmy were desperately trying to hold in their laughter.

"I've tried my best." Danny offered weakly. "I can probably tie these pieces back with something." He added.

"Here, I have some hair thingies." She said and pulled a pair of glittery purple butterfly hair ties and handed them to Danny. "Mommy gave them to me for sleeping." She added sadly. Danny paused when she said that but he had no idea what to say so instead he stayed quiet and tied Tootie's hair back. All those years of his sister making him play with her and her dolls paid off.

"There, all set." He smiled and she felt her new hairstyle, then pouted.

"Does it look dumb?" She asked.

"Ha, no." SpongeBob laughed as he patted her head. "You look cute, and a lot harder to grab."

"If I ever need to let Danny cut my hair, shoot me." Timmy bluntly said to his genius friend.

"Yeah, my mom wouldn't like it." Jimmy laughed and Danny quickly pulled both boys to the other side of the boxcar.

"I want to talk about Bikini Bottom and what we're gonna do when we get there.." He said, catching them off guard. They thought he was going to scold them for making fun of Tootie's haircut.

"Ok," Timmy said nervously.

"We don't know what to expect; the city could be bad or totally under control." He explained. "The thing is, you two and I, we're a team, you know? And a team needs a plan, aside from everyone else when this train stops, we should know exactly what we're doing."

"A plan." Jimmy smiled. "I like it."

"Whatever." Timmy groaned as he rolled his eyes. "I'm more of a 'go-with-the-flow' kinda guy."

"Trust me, we can't just go rushing in blind," Danny warned. "We need to help find a boat, it's our best bet at safety."

"Okay, but we'll be IN Bikini Bottom and our parents were in Bikini Bottom." Jimmy implied.

"I know, look-"

"No!" Timmy exclaimed, starling everyone in the boxcar. "I don't care about safety! I care about finding them!"

"Where would we even look?" Danny frowned, trying to make the boys see sense.

"I can remember where they were staying, maybe they didn't go far," Jimmy replied. Danny thought about it for a moment and sighed in defeat. It was worth a shot, even if there was a small chance.

"Alright, we'll have a look for them when we get there, but if the city is overrun with infected and ghosts then I'm sorry but we'll have to focus on helping Bucky find a boat, a boat is the ultimate plan.

"Yes." Timmy sighed, knowing that was the best as they were gonna get.

"If we do find them, they can come with us, right?" Jimmy asked and Danny nodded.

"When me and Bucky found that map it looked like we'll come right through town if there's nothing on the tracks to hold us up." He explained. "We're gonna want to look for a boat by the beach, I imagine, and from there, we've got all of Bikini Bottom to the southwest of us; where do your parents stay?"

"They always stay in the same place when they go there," Timmy replied.

"The Marsh House," Jimmy added.

"So we'll head there." The teen smiled. "You think we have a good plan?"

"I think it's very good." Jimmy agreed.

"Can I...tell our parents?" Timmy asked and Jimmy gave him a hard glare. Danny frowned at that but shrugged it off.

"Sure, go ahead." He smiled. "I guess we should see how far-"

"OH, SHIT! HOLD ON, EVERYBODY!" Bucky suddenly screamed. The others didn't have a chance to move, however, as they lurched forward as the train suddenly squealed to a halt...


	25. Tanker Trouble

As soon as the train squealed to a halt, everyone quickly got out to see what had gone wrong. On the overpass ahead of them, part of a gas truck was hanging off the edge and blocking the tracks.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! FUUUUUUUUUCK!" Bucky roared as he angrily paced around.

"Maybe we could walk?" Kwan suggested.

"That's fucking stupid." Dash glared.

"I'm just sayin'..." He muttered.

"Hmm, I dunno; we could probably deal with that." Mr. Dinkleberg said. "We got a goddamn train."

"That thing's not full of milk." SpongeBob pointed out fearfully. "That's gas or diesel; something that's going to explode."

"YOU gotta get ahold of yourself, this a crew here." Kwan frowned.

"This ain't shit." Bucky snarled and Mr. Dinkleberg glared at the man.

"This-"

"Hey!" A man's voice suddenly called out and the group looked up to the overpass and saw a man and woman looking down at them. Bucky reached toward his gun in his back pocket, just in case. The woman had short light brown hair with a pink flower pin in it and dark brown eyes. She wore a purple bikini top and a purple and green skirt-like bottom with light grey boots. The man was overweight, bald with a pointy head, thick eyebrows, and lavender eyes.

He wore a coral pink vest shirt with lime green pants with lavender flowers on them.

"You keep screaming like that and you're gonna get your faces chewed off." The man laughed.

"Are ya guys gonna be trouble? Because we could've just kept walking." The woman said coldly with a thick Texan accent.

"Define 'trouble'," Danny called up.

"Anything that gets ya killed or worse, and it tends to come hand-in-hand with groups of guys in distress!"

"Let's give these guys a break." The man said to the woman.

"We'll see." She glared

"You guys got a problem with your train?"

"Yeah, you're standing right in front of it." Bucky scowled at the gas truck/

"It's a wreck, it's not so bad from up here." The man shrugged. "Send your buddies up to have a look." He said, gesturing to Danny, SpongeBob, and the ladder leading up the overpass.

"Anything goes sideways up there, we won't let them escape," Bucky whispered dangerously to the teen and blonde man. Danny nodded and climbed up the ladder, hoping the strangers were not going to be murderers or thieves. As they reached the top they saw that the strangers were whispering about something, only to stop when the saw him.

"Hey, I'm Patrick Starr." The man smiled.

"Danny Fenton." He replied.

"SpongeBob." He said with a bright smile.

"Sandy Cheeks." The woman said. "What's tha deal with tha train?"

"We're driving it," Danny said as Timmy and Jimmy climbed up the ladder and joined him on the overpass.

"Oh, shit! Goddamn, you guys have kids!" Patrick grinned, slightly creeping Danny out and he subtly stood between them and the boys. "Do you know how long it's been since I've seen a kid? Shit! What's your name?"

"Jimmy Neutron."

"Timmy Turner."

"Oh, so he gets to swear?" Danny joked bu the boys just shrugged.

"Well, this is great." Patrick smiled and turned to Sandy. "See, things are looking up."

"None of ya are related." She frowned. "Are their parents down there?" She asked the black and white-haired teen.

"No, they're not down there," Danny replied sadly.

"What's yer story?" She asked.

"I came across Jimmy and Timmy alone the first day all of this happened, we've been together ever since."

"And everybody down there, they're cool?"

"Mr. Dinkleberg lost his wife and Bucky just lost his kid." SpongeBob sighed sadly.

"How long ago?" Patrick gasped.

"What time is it?" Danny frowned.

"I don't know, uh, four?"

"Maybe two hours ago."

"Goddamn..." Sandy muttered as she looked down sympathetically at the group.

"We're sorry for anything that's happened to you guys; that train is awesome, though." Patrick smiled.

"That tank is yer real problem." She frowned as she walked closer to the dangling vehicles. "We'll help ya with it, but if we see anything we don't like, we're moving on down the road, alone.!

"We'd appreciate the help." Danny smiled.

"We can't just blast through it, I guess." Timmy pouted.

"Not unless you want those beaver teeth to burn like marshmallows," Jimmy smirked as his friend growled.

"Boys." Danny glared and the two stopped.

"If ya could get it down, tha rest would probably be pretty easy." Sandy hummed in thought. "We'll come down and settle in, and see if we can help." She said and she and Patric climbed down the ladder with the boys and SpongeBob, leaving Danny alone on the overpass. Danny examined the hitch that attached the hanging tanker to the truck but it was mangled to hell, no releasing it, no nothing. Then he noticed the FRS truck parked next to the dangling truck.

He opened it up and saw it was mostly empty aside from a couple of stop signs, traffic cones, and yellow tape, which he took.

Not seeing anything else of value, the teen climbed back down the ladder and joined the others.

"You want to start in on that tanker?" SpongeBob smiled when Danny hopped off the ladder.

"I'll get ta know tha kids for a minute if ya don't mind," Sandy said, but it didn't sound anything like a question.

"Why don't I show you how this thing works, in case something happens?" Bucky weakly offered in a very clear depressed monotone and it was then Danny got a good look at his face. Looking back to when he first met the former baseball player, he almost didn't recognize the man. His face and lost most of its color with heavy bags under his dull eyes.

"Really Bucky?" The teen asked warily.

"It's probably for the best." Bucky shrugged. "Someone might want to have a look inside of that station back there, too." He said and pointed to the train station just a few minutes walk further up the tracks. Without another word, Bucky, SpongeBob, and Patrick entered the cab while Sandy and the three kids sat on the ground, talking. Mr. Dinkleberg sat on a rock, keeping an eye on the newcomer while Dash and Kwan sat on top of the train.

Noticing the odd look on the two jocks' faces, Danny quickly walked over to them.

"Got a clear view up there?" He joked, trying to break the tension.

"Yeah, we're good for a ways." Dash smiled and looked at Sandy. "We need someone, anyone, to come along and...and...exterminate them or something."

"I'm telling you, Danny, if they ever get a HOLD of me and I know I'm not getting out of it, that's it, man." Kwan gulped. "I'm just gonna... punch my own ticket."

"Punch your own ticket?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, take myself out."

"Don't be dramatic." Danny glared. "And don't let them get a hold of you; as soon as that thing comes down we'll be on our way and I hope we won't have any more trouble out of you two."

"I promise you won't," Dash replied. Danny gave them a curt nod and went to check on the kids.

"You interrogating this woman for us?" He grinned.

"Yep." Timmy laughed.

"She set off any alarm bells?"

"Not yet." Tootie smiled weakly.

"They're very thorough." Sandy joked.

"That's what I like to hear." Chuckled Danny.

"That's a pretty useful radio for him ta be holdin' onto, no?" The Texan woman quietly said to the teen as she nodded to the radio Timmy was holding.

"It's busted, but it means something to him.

"Ah, I understand." She nodded and turned to the kids again.

"Careful, they're crack shots now." He smiled.

"Ya got these little kids shootin' guns?" She frowned and Danny rolled his eyes.

"Look, I don't need a lecture."

"Ya weren't gettin' one." Said Sandy, catching Danny off guard. "It's good, they SHOULD be able ta take care of themselves."

"Not sure how we'll get that tank down." He sighed, looking up at the tanker.

"Maybe ask Patrick." She suggested. "He likes ta break things." She added with and an irritated scowl. Danny snickered before walking away and climbing into the train where he found SpongeBob and Patrick watching Bucky as he carefully explained the controls.

"Learning the ropes? Can't be too hard, right?" Danny asked playfully.

"There are a lot of levers I can't wait to use." Replied SpongeBob with a big grin on his face.

"I said if something WERE to happen to me." Bucky glared darkly at the other men.

"Maybe we can drive in shifts?" Asked SpongeBob with a nervous chuckled.

"We'll see." He huffed and turned away. A thick tension quickly filled the train and Danny left and let Bucky continue his conductor's lesson. Seeing there was nothing else to do, Danny made to approach the train station further up the tracks, only for Jimmy and Timmy to step in front of him.

"Can we follow you over there?" Timmy asked as sweetly as possible.

"You don't like the new girl?" He asked.

"I do." Shrugged Jimmy and Timmy nodded in agreement. "But...it's like we're a team like you said." The boy genius smiled.

"Yeah, alright, come on." Danny sighed and he turned to the others. "Jimmy, Timmy and I are checking out this train station, alright? Hustle over if you hear anything, and I mean anything." He ordered before grabbing his sword and a pistol and the team of three headed to the train station...

* * *

Within just a few minutes, Jimmy, Timmy, and Danny arrived at the station. It wasn't anything impressive. It was simply a small log cabin building with a wooden platform next to the track. 'SURVIVORS INSIDE' was painted on the roof with bright white paint. Danny hummed in thought when he saw this; somebody must have been pretty desperate. He looked at open paint cans scattered around, but the paint had been dry for months.

There was a large no entry sign and a forklift sat nearby, it didn't look like it had worked for years.

Danny approached the door, only to find that Timmy was already trying to open it and failing. The door was firmly locked.

"You should wait for me before trying to open doors." The teen scolded the pink hatted boy, who moved away from the door.

"Sorry." Muttered Timmy.

"Luckily it's locked, don't worry, we'll get better at working together." Danny smiled as he looked around for a way into the station. It was then he saw an open window above the locked door. "The window's open up there." He pointed out.

"Maybe I could look in?" Jimmy asked and Danny thought about it. He didn't want to risk it, worried that there were infected or worst, ghosts, waiting for them on the other side of the door. He didn't have much choice, however.

"Why don't I put you on my shoulders and you can peek into that window up there? But if there is anything in there let me know."

"Sounds good." Smiled Jimmy as he quickly stood on Danny's shoulders and looked into the window. "Okay, I can see in, what do I do now?"

"What do you see?" Timmy asked.

"Lots of crates and stuff, not sure what they contain, I can't see any ghosts or infected."

"Maybe we can find the key or figure out a way to knock this door down," Danny said. "Bucky'd probably have me pick the lock, which actually might work now that we have the time." He sighed, but before he could fathom his next thought, however, Jimmy suddenly reached through the open window and suddenly unlocked the thick door.

"I think I opened it." He beamed brightly.

"For real?" Gasped Danny and he opened the door. "Well, I'll be damned." He smiled and turned to the boys. "You okay?" He asked and the boy nodded.

"Let's go!" Timmy exclaimed with a big grin on his face and made to move towards the door, only for Jimmy to grab him arm.

"Be careful." He warned his best frienemy.

"I'm supposed to tell you that." Joked Danny, ruffling both boys' hair as they entered the station. The first thing they noticed was that it was incredibly dark inside the train station. The only light in the small room was the sunlight bleeding in from the open door.

"M-Maybe I can hold the door open?" Timmy said through chattering teeth.

"I don't like that." The black and white-haired teen frowned. "I'll prop it open with something." He said and pulled out his sword. Jimmy said the coast was clear and Danny couldn't see anything dangerous in the building, so he used the green blade to prop the door open. Now that that was done, Danny and the boys began looking for something to help them deal with the tanker. As they looked around, Danny saw a blowtorch sat in the far side of the room behind a cage wall.

That was exactly what they needed, they just needed to get in there and get that blowtorch.

He tried the cage door but it was locked up good. He saw some keys behind the bars and there was some space at the top, it looked to be the right size for someone small to squeeze through.

"There's some space up there, but not much." He said to the kids.

"We're lucky I'm so little," Timmy smirked as he stepped forward.

"Yeah, we are." Chuckled Danny as he carefully boosted him into the cage. "Go on and grab the keys." He instructed as he and Jimmy watch the other boy run over and grabbed the keys and blowtorch. He turned around and gasped.

"Behind you!" He screamed and Danny quickly turned around and gasped when he saw an infected approaching them.

"Fuck!" The teen shouted in shock and slight fear as he pushed Jimmy away and pulled out his pistol, but another infected suddenly jumped out the shadows and attacked him, knocking the pistol out of his hands and under the cage door. Danny pushes it back, but both infected continue to advance. Without weapons, he tried to punch the zombies, but unfortunately, it was ineffectual. He managed to back up to the door and grabbed his sword.

He killed one of the zombies and struggled as the second one grabbed onto him, but then he knocked it over and quickly killed it.

As the adrenaline faded, he saw Timmy frozen against the bars and Jimmy holding the pistol, his hands clearing shaking, too scared to fire the gun.

"It's okay... it's okay... everything's fine." He tried to soothe, only for his eyes to widened what he saw an infected stumble out of the darkness. "KEYS! NOW!" He screamed as Jimmy backed away from the cage. Timmy took the keys and handed them to Danny. He swiftly unlocked the door, took the pistol, and shot down the infected before it could grab Timmy.

"God... damn..." Danny panted as Jimmy and Timmy hugged his waist tightly.

"That didn't go so good." Jimmy shook fearfully.

"No, it did not go so good." He sighed as he knelt down and held the boys closely. "But we're okay, everything's okay." He smiled only to tense up when he heard the sound of running feet, but he relaxed when he remembered that the infected didn't run that fast.

"What's goin' on?" Sandy called from outside the door as she ran inside. "I thought I heard a gunshot."

"We're fine," Danny replied and it was then she saw the puddles of ectoplasm soaking into the wooden floor. "We found some infected." He added when he saw what she was looking at.

"Ya and two children versus three of them, huh?" She glared, crossing her arms and Danny frowned at her tone. "I'm gonna go make sure tha noise didn't cause us any problems." She said.

"That's a good idea." Jimmy nodded and Sandy smiled and, then she started to leave. Before reaching the door, she turned back to them.

"I hope ya know what yer doin' with them." She told the skinny teen.

"We're still alive, aren't we?" Danny glared, still holding onto the boys.

"Yeah, you are." She huffed and left without another word. Danny sent a withering scowl at the door for a few more seconds before putting a little space between him, Jimmy, and Timmy.

"You sure you're okay?" He asked as he checked both boys over thoroughly.

"Yeah." Jimmy nodded slowly.

"I'm a little shaky," Timmy admitted.

"It'll pass." He reassured as he picked up the blowtorch and somehow fitted the entire thing into his jacket pocket. "We got it."

"Let's go outside now." Jimmy quickly said as he grabbed Timmy and Danny's hands in his own and practically dragged them out the dark train station.

"What did we learn?" Danny asked with a weak grin, trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm not ready for a gun." Jimmy sighed.

"No, you just have to learn to pull the trigger." He smiled.

"It's so hard." He whined.

"Don't think, just do it, live with what happens."

"I'll try."

"Good, now, what else did we learn?" He asked but both boys shrugged. "We learned that everything we will ever do is dangerous, we'll get better, smarter, and faster; okay?"

"Okay." They replied.

"We also learned not to be afraid." He said. "They should have got us, but we got them." He added to reassure the boys.

"Yeah, you're right." Jimmy sighed.

"Fear is the thing that will kill us, you understand?" He asked and they nodded. Danny took a deep breath, hoping the boys would remember that, as they returned to the group who were still gathered under the overpass...


	26. Long Road Ahead

Even though it only took a few minutes at most to walk it felt like hours to Danny, Jimmy, and Timmy. The conflict back inside the train station played over and over in the black and white-haired teen's mind, and he was certain the same was going on in the boys' minds. He thought back to what Sandy had said to him, the way she had said it. It had him thinking. Was he really protecting Jimmy and Timmy? Or was he putting them in danger?

It wasn't his fault; he was just sixteen, he didn't have any kids or any younger siblings, he only had his parents and older sister.

He was just trying his best to make sure he and everyone in their group. He shook his head, trying to get rid of those thoughts from his mind. As they approached the group, the boys went to tell Tootie their close encounter and SpongeBob exited the cab.

"I found a blowtorch in the station." Danny smiled as he held out the tool. "Should make quick work of the coupling up there."

"Alright, I'll come up there with you to have a look." He smiled widely and quickly ran over and climbed up the ladder up to the overpass. Danny chuckled and was about to join him when all of a sudden, Sandy grabbed his shoulder. Confused, the teen turned to face her and she crossed her arms with a steely glare he had only ever seen on one other woman.

"Look, if this is about what happened in the station; we were trying to get used to being on our own, Jimmy, Timmy, and I." He explained.

"So ya take them into a dark, boarded-up buildin' ta build character?" She scoffed, almost as if in disgust.

"Not exactly."

"I think it's a good idea, figurin' stuff out for herself, for what it's worth." She sighed. "But be smart about it, teach them ta scan tha area for things, ya two should never be lookin' in the same spot, that's a waste; stay tha hell out of places like that buildin' over there." She glared at the said train station. "Especially if ya don't have more than one way ta get out and be more afraid of groups of livin' men than dead folk."

"That, we know." Danny grimaced, thinking back to the farm and the bandits.

"Patrick and I are still alive because we're two, and not six or eight or ten; I don't believe in strength in numbers and ya shouldn't either." She warned, but Danny didn't answer her and climbed up the ladder where SpongeBob was waiting for him.

"Think that'll work?" The teen asked, looking at the tanker.

"Oh Danny, you're cutting metal with fire; how could it not?" He asked with a giggle. Danny rolled his eyes at the man's antics as he set the blowtorch down and turned it on, but it didn't ignite.

"Shit." Danny hissed as he turned it off.

"What's up?"

"The hose has a leak in it." He pointed out and SpongeBob quickly backed away, scared of being burnt.

"Better plug that leak with something." The blonde man said and Danny remembered the tape he had taken from the truck. Immediately he pulled out the yellow tape and used it to cover the leak. Hoping it would hold, Danny turned on the blowtorch again and started to cut the hitch while closing his eyes, praying he wouldn't go up in flames. After a few seconds, the truck started to slide down and SpongeBob quickly pulled Danny backward to safety.

"Whoa, thanks!" Danny smiled in relief as he got back up and looked back at the tanker. It was hanging by a thread, the smallest cut and it would go. He reached over and tried to cut hitch some more but he couldn't reach it now. He looked at the tanker again and considered pulling it, but it was too far off the edge. Just then he was struck with a risky idea and offered the blowtorch to SpongeBob.

"Here, the weak portion of the coupling is out of my reach." He explained.

"You think it'll be within mine?" He asked, pushing the blowtorch away. It was true, even though he was older than Danny he was notably a head shorter than the skinny teen.

"No, but I'm gonna dangle you over that ledge." Danny shrugged. At first, SpongeBob wanted to throw the blowtorch at the teen, but for some reason that he couldn't quite explain, he trusted Danny.; so taking a deep breath, SpongeBob leaned over the edge and used the blowtorch as Danny held onto his arm tightly to keep him from falling. The blonde man whimpered but said nothing and started cutting. As Dash watched the two of them work from the front of the train, Kwan climbed down and started looking around.

It was then he noticed a strong line slowing moving towards them from a long way behind them, but he couldn't get a good look at it.

At first, he thought it was another train, but it was moving way too slow to be that.

"Guys... there's something coming." He called out uneasily. Danny looked up and gasped when he saw it was a giant herd of infected people approaching them from the distance.

"WHAT THE WHAT?" SpongeBob screamed when he saw them too.

"There must be thousands..." Danny breathed in shock as he watched the herb move at a snail's pace up the tracks. There were so many that he couldn't see the tracks behind them and the edge of the herd was far beyond the horizon.

"WE GOTTA GO!" Kwan cried as he ran back onto the front of the train with Dash.

"Fuck, SpongeBob! CUT! CUT!" Danny shouted.

"I AM! IT'S GOING! PULL ME UP!" He pleaded after he successfully cut through the hitch, and Danny quickly pulled him up. The tanker fell and crashed into the ladder, destroying it and their only way down/.

"BUCKY, GO!" The black and white-haired teen roared as everyone but him and SpongeBob got into the train as Bucky started it up. Gas started to spill from the fallen tanker and onto the track. The two men on the overpass ran for the ladder as the train started to inch forward, but that was when they saw it was smashed to pieces and lay on the ground.

"What do we do now Danny?" Whimpered SpongeBob.

"Hope this works." He whispered and without thinking twice he kicked the blowtorch down, lighting the gas on fire; hoping the flames would scare off, or at least, slow down the infected wave. SpongeBob gasped as the flames engulfed the ground, thankfully missing the train and they ran over to the railing on the other side of the overpass as the train passed under them.

"We gotta jump!" Danny shouted.

"WHAT?! No way!" He cried, gripping the railing tighter.

"GUYS!" Sandy exclaimed from the train.

"COME ON!" Dash called as well. Danny looked back at his friend but realized he was going to jump. without missing a beat, Danny quickly pushed SpongeBob off the side of the overpass to the train and jumped down after him, landing on the top of the train. SpongeBob hit the top of the train too, but he ended up bouncing off to the ground. He cried out in pain and clutched his right leg tightly. Seeing this, Sandy jumped down and helped SpongeBob up.

The man limped as fast as he could and Sandy ran alongside the train.

The flames did nothing to stop the infected, or even slow them down, they simply walked right through the burning blaze, catching fire themselves. Danny quickly swung into the boxcar and saw SpongeBob and Sandy running beside him. He grabbed the injured SpongeBob's arm and hoisted him into the boxcar. Sandy quickly grabbed onto the edge and pulled herself into the boxcar as well as the train sped up and took them further away from the herd.

As Danny looked at the herd of infected behind them Jimmy and Timmy entered the boxcar.

"That...was a LOT...of them," Timmy said, a twinge of fear in his voice.

"Are you hurt...?" Jimmy asked.

"No, we're mostly okay." Replied Danny, giving SpongeBob's injured leg a sympathetic look. The boxcar quickly descended into an uncomfortable silence as the trained sped down the long road of tracks ahead...

* * *

As the train sped down the tracks it wasn't long before the sun began to set, casting a dark dim orange glow across the land, the branches of the dead trees casting long shadows along the cold ground. While the others slept in the boxcar, Danny, Bucky, and Timmy were in the cab, with Timmy asleep in a chair with his backpack on the floor next to him. He had wanted to see how the train worked but had quickly fallen asleep as soon as he sat down.

Bucky was standing in the front of the train, taking a smoke from one of the cigarettes Sandy had had on her while Danny kept an eye on the controls.

The teen sat in silence until he happened to look down and saw something sticking out of Timmy's backpack. Quietly, he bent down to the open backpack and examined a drawing one of the kids had made of Bucky and Chester. Just then Bucky entered the cab and Danny quickly put the drawing back.

"Next stop, the Atlantic." The man grunted as he took his seat in the conductor's chair and stared out the window as the dark outline of Bikini Bottom finally appeared on the horizon.

"We have to find a boat, we just have to," Danny muttered.

"We will." Bucky nodded as he abruptly looked up, and caught Danny staring at him. "Yeah, there ain't much to say." He sighed. "I'll be alive, I guess, blood in my heart, blood in my brain, at least."

"I'll leave you to your thoughts," Danny said and turned to the sleeping Timmy. "He's out cold like I've never seen." He chuckled and went to pick him up; only to jump back slightly when all of sudden Timmy's radio crackled. He was certain Timmy said that thing was broken. The teen frowned and picked it up.

 _ **"Hell...o...oo...there...?"**_ A crackling man's voice said through the radio, but Danny couldn't recognize it.

"What the...?" Danny gasped as Bucky got up and stood beside him.

 _ **"Can't wait for you and Jimmy to get to Bikini Bottom, Timmy."**_ Said the stranger. _**"I've got your parents right here, and you be sure to find me whether that Danny boy wants you to or not; now, what I need-"**_ He started before the radio suddenly cut out.

"Holy shit..." Danny muttered in horror.

"I thought that fucking thing was broken..." Bucky snapped.

"So did I."

"Well, it sounds like somebody knows where we're headed."

"Who the fuck was that...? If he's convinced Timmy and Jimmy that he has their parents..."

"I don't know who that fucker is, but I doubt we're going to be happy when we find out," Bucky said as they both stared out the window at the fast-approaching city of Bikini Bottom...


End file.
